1 



Cfce eioht tobition. 






tb. 



THE 




WORKS OF HORACE 

RENDERED INTO A 

ENGLISH PROSE 

WITH INTRODUCTIONS RUNNING ANALYSIS 
NOTES AND AN INDEX. 

BY 

JAMES LONSDALE M.A. 

LATE FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE OXFORD 
AND CLASSICAL PROFESSOR IN KING'S COLLEGE LONDON 

AND 

SAMUEL LEE M.A. 

LATIN LECTURER AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 
AND LATE SCHOLAR OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE. 




Honlron: 

MACMILLAN AND CO. 
1874. 



[All Rights reserved.} 






\ 



4 



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; 



PREFACE. 



Ohis version of Horace is a literal rendering of the original, the 
translators having kept in view the same objects as they had 
^efore them in their edition of Virgil in this series. 

The °Me of the Satires and Epistles, "the prosaic Muse/' as 
Horace himself calls it, appears to be not unsuited for actual 
prose ; but with regard to the Odes, the case is certainly different. 
Yet, though few prose translations of the Odes have been written 
in this country, in France there have been many. Perhaps the 
most notable are the versions by M. Jules Janin and M. Leon 
Halevy. These are flowing and elegant, but have rather a 
tendency to paraphrase. It seems that one advantage is gained 
by adopting the form of rhythmical prose in translating the Odes : 
greater freedom is thus afforded for the attempt to make some 
approach towards the expression in another language of the 



VI 



PREFACE. 



exquisite felicity and delicate lightness of phrase, so difficult to 
handle without spoiling, which characterise the Odes of Horace 
above all other poems. 

The space given to the Notes has necessarily been somewhat 
limited : but it is hoped that difficulties of construction have 
not been passed over, and that the illustrations and references 
explain sufficiently the very numerous and various allusions 
which are found in the writings of Horace. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface . . . .. • v 

General Introduction i 

Life by Suetonius 18 

Introduction to the Odes . . . . . . .21 

The Odes . .'.... . 27 

Introduction to the Secular Hymn 85 

Secular Hymn 87 

Introduction to the Epodes . . . . . .89 

The Epodes 92 

Introduction to the Satires . . . . . .102 

The Satires . . . . . . . ... .107 

Introduction to the Epistles 159 

The Epistles . . . • . . . . . .163 

Introduction to the Art of Poetry . . . . .201 

The Art of Poetry 206 

Totes. • 219 

index . 266 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

THOSE to whom the writings of Horace have given delight (and a 
great company they are, readers of various ages, countries, tastes, 
dispositions,) owe a debt of gratitude first of all to Horace's good 
father, then to the poets Virgil and Varius, and then to his friend 
and patron Maecenas ; for without all of them the life of Horace had 
been quite different, and literature had been without one of its most 
charming authors. No doubt even the childhood of Horace had 
influence upon his future life. He was born near the source of one 
of the southern tributaries of the impetuous Aufidus, now called 
Ofanto, the river of Apulia, often mentioned by him, and so dear 
to his early recollections, that he exalts it to be a representative 
stream, as had been used the harmonious names of Maeander and 
Eurotas, and the other rivers of the poetry of Greece. Venusia, now 
Venosa, his birth-place, is situate in a beautiful country on the side 
of the Apennines towards the Adriatic. In this romantic region he 
wandered as a child near the pointed peaks of the mountain Vultur, 
or under Acherontia, built like a nest on a steep hill, or amid the 
woods and glens of Bantia, or by the lowly village of Forentum. 
The Apennines with their sombre forests of pine, and summits 
rising over each other, described so well in the Mysteries of Udolpho, 
had charms for Goethe, though a foreigner ; and a poetic child born 
amongst them would find them a meet nurse. In the poetry of the 
ancients there are none of those elaborate and idealized descriptions 
of scenery found so often in modern writers ; yet Horace, like Virgil, 
often gives a picture of places by epithets carefully chosen. When 
his fame as a poet was established, he would look back with a natural 
gratitude to the scenery of his childhood, and fancy that the gods 
protected the spirited boy from bears and serpents in his roamings 
among the hills, and that doves, the birds of Venus, like the robin 
redbreasts of later stories, threw on the sleeping child leaves of 
sacred myrtle and holy bay. Venusia had been an important Roman 
colony for upwards of 300 years, ever since the days of the Samnite 
wars. Hither fled some of the Roman troops after the defeat at 
Cannae. Nature never intended Horace for a soldier: but he, who 

HOR. I 



HORACE. 



was born in a military town, became for a short time a tribune or 
colonel in the Roman army, and often expresses an admiration for 
Roman courage in war. 

Horace nowhere makes mention of his mother, and we do not 
know whether she was a freed-woman, or free-born ; he only says in 
one place that he was the child of lowly parents. It is likely enough 
that she died when he was young; else Horace, whose character is 
marked by affectionate gratitude, would probably have mentioned 
her. There is hardly anything more beautiful in the writings of 
antiquity than the way in which he speaks of that good father, whom 
he says he would not change for any parent who had held high office 
in the state. His father spared no expense and pains in his educa- 
tion. By him was the boy guarded from every taint of evil. None 
of the other Roman poets (except Terence, who was a slave, but 
born at Carthage, and of what rank there we do not know,) sprang 
from so humble an origin. His father had been a slave. The man 
who enfranchised the father little thought what would be the con- 
sequence of that enfranchisement. No wonder, as Horace himself 
tells us, and as Suetonius in his Life of Horace observes, that his 
father's low estate and calling were made a reproach to the pros- 
perous friend of Augustus and Maecenas. How bravely Horace 
answered this taunt, every reader of the poet knows. Indeed, he 
owed all to his father. If he had not given his son such a liberal 
education, Horace would probably have passed his days in the 
obscure town of Venusia, engaged there in some petty trade, and 
been an entertaining companion at the suppers of the centurions and 
their families. A more striking example cannot be given of what 
may depend on some humble instrument, who at a certain time 
behaves with spirit and generosity. Horace mus.t have profited 
much by the lessons which he had in Livius Andronicus, and the 
other early poets of Rome, though he did not, when a man, highly 
esteem those authors who had cost him many a flogging, even as 
he has caused many a flogging to schoolboys since. His teacher 
Orbilius was like many a teacher, sour-tempered, free-spoken, given 
to whipping, one who earned more fame than money, and had reason 
to complain of the interference of parents. But if Horace, when 
delivered from the rod of Orbilius the grammarian, had received no 
more education, he had never been the Lyric poet of Rome. To a 
school was to be added a University, and kindly Athens, the only city 
in the world that could do it, was to finish what Rome had begun, 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



and Greek literature was to crown Latin, that he, like his friend 
Maecenas, might be learned in both tongues. How Horace's father 
obtained the means to send his son to Athens we may well wonder, 
when we consider the expense of an education at that fashionable 
University. Horace, at the time he left Italy for Greece, must have 
taken leave of the good father, whom he was never to see again. 

At Athens Horace became familiar with Greek literature, he was 
a seeker after truth in the groves of Academus, he tried his hand at 
Greek verses, Greek Iambics perhaps, or Greek Elegiacs, or Greek 
Lyrics, till, as he playfully imagines, one night when he was sleeping, 
behold, the divine founder of Rome, who recognised in him a true 
son of Italy, no mere imitator or translator of Greek poetry, appeared 
in a dream that issued after midnight from the gate of horn, and 
forbade his attempting such a superfluous work. Thus, as the 
scenery of the Apennines, the liberality of his father, his early 
residence at Rome, the teaching of severe Orbilius, all tended to 
make Horace what he was destined to be, so did Athens contribute 
its share towards this end, both directly and indirectly; directly by 
teaching him Greek literature and philosophy, indirectly by the 
circumstances into which he was thrown owing to the public events 
which were then taking place. There is hardly any one in whose case 
it is more plainly to be seen how all kinds of different things concur 
in training a man to be what he is meant to be. Walckenaer and 
Rigault both remark, that while Horace was a student at Athens the 
news came of the assassination of Julius Caesar, that at that time 
Cicero sent his treatise on the Offices to his son, who then was also a 
student at Athens, in which treatise Cicero expresses his admiration of 
the act of the conspirators ; that the students were many of them the 
sons of senators, that the statues of Brutus and Cassius were crowned 
with flowers together with those of Harmodius and Aristogiton. 
Horace would be carried away by this enthusiasm. Youth is the 
age for republican impulses. When Brutus, Cato's son-in-law, came 
there, he would appear to the young Horace the true representative 
of republican principles. Even supposing that Horace was at that 
time an Epicurean, of which however we cannot be certain, his zeal 
for republicanism would prevent his taking offence at the Stoic 
opinions of Brutus. How Horace, so young and of such lowly 
origin, became a military tribune in the army of Brutus is as difficult 
to understand as many points in history must always be. That in 
the service of Brutus, in the midst of his militar y life, he had those 

1—2 



HORACE. 



natural spirits and love of fun which were characteristic of his joyous 
nature, is plain from the seventh Satire of the first book, which is 
interesting, as being in all probability the earliest remaining pro- 
duction of the poet. The military career of Horace and his repub- 
lican enthusiasm were soon terminated by the decisive defeat of 
Philippi, after which, as Tacitus says, the republic, as republic, fought 
no battles. To Horace the day was not fatal, as to many others : 
like the lyric poet of Lesbos, the future lyric poet of Italy threw 
away his shield, which was not well, as he himself confesses. But 
this short portion of the life of Horace, forming such a contrast to 
his earlier and latter days, contributed its part towards making him 
the writer he became. Three times has he mentioned Cato, the 
father-in-law of Brutus, speaking in one place of his unconquered 
spirit, in another of his virtue, in a third of his glorious death. The 
exploits of republican Rome are dear to the poet. The worthies 
of the ancient commonwealth, Regulus, ^Emilius Paullus, Camillus 
and Fabricius, are not unsung by him. He has a feeling for the 
ancient simplicity, and a belief in the morality, of the days of old. 
No one sets forth more strongly than he does the madness and 
impiety of civil war. Had he not seen the evil with his own eyes, 
himself a part of it? A courtier he became afterwards, but still a 
patriotic poet. 

After the battle of Philippi he returned to Italy, with farm lost, 
humbled in hopes, like a bird whose wings are clipped. These were 
his dark days. He says that bold poverty drove him to write verses. 
To poverty we owe Rasselas and the Vicar of Wakefield. The 
same necessity gave the impulse to the genius of Smollett as a 
novelist. But of what verses does Horace speak? Indeed it is 
probable that he is half jesting. This is the opinion of August 
Arnold in his Life of Horace. Certainly the Epistle in which Horace 
speaks of these verses drawn forth by poverty is an Epistle full of 
jests and pleasant irony. It will not do to interpret Horace literally 
always. The same August Arnold thinks that it was then he en- 
rolled himself in the company or guild of clerks : and Suetonius 
says that he obtained the place of secretary to a quasstor. With 
what means, whether the remains of his fortune, or borrowed money, 
or by some interest, is unknown. Arnold says that it is to his 
credit that he did not then take up the life of a parasite. A man of 
his natural wit might have got a livelihood more or less agreeable 
in this way, and been not unlike the parasites Vibidius and Balatro, 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION, 



whom he himself so graphically describes in the last of the Satires. 
From the days of his poverty and obscurity he no doubt learnt 
something, as all wise men do. The remembrance of them would 
make him more grateful to the friend, who raised him from diffi- 
culties to competence and ease. Some of the sterner and more 
manly passages of his poetry, and those which recommend a spirit 
undisturbed by all the changes of fortune, owe something to his 
having known the hardships of adversity. However, the iron never 
entered deeply into his joyous soul. If it had, it might have crushed 
the poetic spirit and light heart within him. The evil days were few. 
Whether he knew Virgil in earlier days, or had met him at Athens, 
or whether Virgil, his elder by five years, had seen some of his 
youthful poems, he found in him and Varius friends in the hour of 
need. This was the turning-point of his life. Horace tells us 
shortly how he appeared before the great man on that eventful day 
so full of fate to Horace, to Maecenas himself, to literature. He was 
diffident and shy, and his speech was broken and stammering. 
He told the simple truth of himself, his father, his means. Few 
were the words of the patron in reply. Maecenas did not give his 
friendship lightly : but, nine months after, Horace became his friend. 
What Walter Scott imagines in Kenilworth when describing the 
meeting of Shakespeare and Leicester, may be applied here : the son 
of a freedman was honoured with an interview with the Emperor's 
great minister, so that age would have told the tale; in ours we 
should say, the immortal had done homage to the mortal. However, 
Horace owed not only the happiness of his life, but his fame as a 
poet and writer, to this interview with Maecenas. Some poets, like 
Dante and Milton, may have been made greater by adversity, when 
the indignant Muse has drawn spirit and fire from misfortune, but 
such was not the case of Horace. Indignation could never make 
verses of the kind he wrote. The one or two Epodes which he 
probably wrote in the days of his adversity are not to be compared 
with the happy outpourings of his soul in the days of his prosperity. 
Juvenal was right, when he says that Horace was comfortable on the 
day that he burst out in the praises of the God Bacchus. A joyous, 
not a bitter spirit, was needed for the writer of the Satires and 
Epistles of Horace. His Sabine farm and his quiet valley inspired 
those of the Odes which breathe contentment and joy. The times of 
his adversity lasted about three years; the bright sun of prosperity 
shone upon him for full thirty years, and few and light were the 



HORACE. 



clouds that passed over it, till the hour of his last illness, when death 
came swiftly upon him. Few men ever had a more pleasant life 
than the poet ; he had a good father, a liberal education, genius, a 
Muse ready to his call, popularity, independence, contentment, 
honour, troops of friends. Against this are to be set troubles and 
difficulties soon over, a certain amount of rivalry and jealousy, and 
health that was not robust. Though he had not all the conditions 
of a happy life, which Martial enumerates, yet he had a goodly share 
of them. 

Horace tells us that he wrote for his friends, not for the public. 
But we are all his friends now. The works of Varius are lost, and 
there was no opportunity for Virgil in his poems to mention his 
brother poet. Horace's name does not appear in the verses of 
Propertius or Tibullus, though to Tibullus Horace has written an 
Ode and an Epistle. Ovid is the only one of the contemporary poets 
who mentions him, saying that tuneful Horace charmed his ears by 
his finished odes sung to the Italian lyre. It is odd that Martial, 
enumerating the birth-places of famous Latin poets, has omitted 
Horace, for the Flaccus there spoken of is Valerius Flaccus, a very 
inferior Flaccus. However, in other places Martial joins Horace's 
name with Virgil; and it is plain from Persius, who lived only about 
sixty years after Horace, and from Juvenal and Quintilian, that 
Horace had soon become a standard author. In the middle ages 
his fame fell far short of that of Virgil, probably it did not equal even 
that of Lucan; but since the revival of classical literature Horace 
has been without comparison the most popular of Latin authors ; 
indeed there is no Greek so popular, hardly any modern one. 
Dr Douglas, an eminent physician in the days of George II., collected 
even then no fewer than 400 editions of Horace. Mr Yonge, in his 
edition of Horace, says that the list of these editions given 50 years 
ago by Mitscherlich extends over a hundred pages. Great has been 
the learning and ingenuity devoted to the elucidation of the text 
and meaning of Horace. Bentley's famous edition is in its way the 
most remarkable of all editions of Horace. None of the productions 
of Bentley display greater merits and greater faults than his edition 
of Horace, never were his ability and his arrogance more clearly 
seen ; but scholars have said that almost as much is to be learnt 
from the mistakes of Bentley as from the careful judgment of other 
editors. The edition appeared on the 8th of December, the birth- 
day of Horace, 1777 years after that event. Mr Yonge says that he 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



has lived at Eton in a Horatian atmosphere, and Eton men seem to 
regard Horace as an Etonian, an opinion in which other schools 
can hardly be expected to agree. Many who have little liking for the 
classics, and have an unpleasant recollection of their early drudgery 
in them, make an exception in favour of Horace, the one author in 
Greek and Latin whom they still read. And many scholars, who have 
not a few favourites among the ancient writers, give their dearest affec- 
tion to Horace. With some men, as with the Abbe de Chaupy, and 
with the witty Galiani, this love has risen to a passion of enthusiasm. 
The latter went so far as to write a treatise on the principles of 
the Laws of Nature and Nations, deduced from the poems of Horace. 
The Abbe de Chaupy, says Rigault, used to thank those who spoke 
well of Horace. Old women that he disliked were to him so many 
Canidias ; a young lady that pleased him was a Lalage. Malherbe 
said that he made Horace his breviary. If Horace's wit endears 
him to Frenchmen, his strong common sense no less recommends 
him to Englishmen. And German editions of the poet are almost 
innumerable. Horace is especially the poet of the man of the 
world, of the gentleman: but on so many points do his writings 
touch, that they have an interest for those whose life is more 
laborious and eventful. Condorcet had a Horace with him in the 
dungeon at Paris where he died ; De Witt, the Pensionary of 
Holland, a man of capacity and integrity, is said, when the mob 
were about to murder him and his brother, to have repeated the 
verses of the Ode of Horace, which in Stoic style describe the 
righteous and resolute man as unshaken from his purpose by the 
fury of citizens who bid him do what is wrong. Lessing counted 
Horace as one of those spirits to whose name he, like the Abbe de 
Chaupy, was unwilling that any taint of dishonour should attach. 
Hooker, as Yonge tells us from Walton's Life, in the preface to his 
edition of Horace, was found in the fields tending his few sheep 
with a Horace in his hand. Many can remember with what 
enthusiasm Dr Butler at Shrewsbury and Dr Keate at Eton used 
to teach Horace. Yonge in his notes gives us many passages in 
modern writers suggested by Horace. It is true that Niebuhr, lectur- 
ing in the year 1827, speaks as if the admiration of Horace was a feel- 
ing that then wavered ; and Niebuhr himself does scanty justice to his 
poetry, and still less to his character. A writer who is so singular in 
his views as to account Catullus the greatest poet of Rome, would not 
estimate Horace fairly; the wild and impulsive Catullus, with the 



HORACE. 



loud wailings of his passion, moves him more than the mild and 
quiet Horace. But, in comparison with Horace, Catullus is little 
read and enjoyed. Allusions to Horace are expected to be at once 
recognized. In the short compass of the first Epistle of the first 
book there are many passages that have become almost proverbial. 
Adaptations of his lines, some dignified, some jocular, have been 
made continually. Thus, as Lord Lytton says in his Introduction 
to the Odes, Mr Pitt never moved the House of Commons more 
than when to England contending with Napoleon he applied the 
passage of Horace which compares Rome in her struggle with 
Hannibal to the oak, "which lopped by axes rude receives new life, 
yea from the very steel." When Dr Goodall, Provost of Eton, was 
asked what he thought of omnibuses, which had then just been in- 
troduced into London, he replied " Horace has settled this by saying 
' Omnibus hoc vitium est.'" And again, being asked to take some 
trifle at dinner, he said "No thank you, 'hae nugse seria ducunt in 
mala.' " 

What then are the causes of this marvellous popularity? The 
question has often been discussed, only too fully. Indeed there 
was no reason to say very much on the point, for the qualities 
of a writer who pleases so many must lie on the surface. It is 
said that his distinguishing characteristic is good common sense ; 
and indeed, whether he is serious or jesting, he never forgets com- 
mon sense. But this alone makes no poet popular. Boileau is 
considered the very impersonification of common sense. Yet Boileau 
is not popular as Horace is. So to common sense must be added 
his wit, a wit fine, good-natured, pleasant, not overstrained, sensible. 
Never was anything more untrue than what Niebuhr says of him : 
"He looks upon everything as a folly, and tries to sneer at every- 
thing, treating what is most venerable with irreverence ; this be- 
comes at last a bad habit in him." On the contrary, Horace gives 
honour where honour is due, he does not sneer at patriotism, tempe- 
rance, modesty, courage, simplicity, kindness, contentment ; he reve- 
rences virtue, the laws of his country, the temples of the gods, the 
memory of the great men of Rome ; so far from sneering becoming 
a bad habit with him, in his later writings he shows more and more 
a serious and chastened temper. In him, as in Sydney Smith, is 
the union of wit and wisdom. He teaches the truth while he laughs. 
His irony does not weary his hearers as that of Socrates is said to 
have done, of whom it has been amusingly, though of course unjustly 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



said "that he was put to death because he was such a bore." Horace 
plainly knew his own faults, and practised real self-examination, and 
does not blame himself, as we often do, for faults which we have not, 
while we ignore those which we have. To his wisdom and wit we 
must add, as another cause of his popularity, the form of his poetry. 
The ancients, inferior to the moderns in ideas, are superior in form. 
In this is a justification of their being used as a means of education. 
This is true of Horace in an eminent degree. In his Epodes and 
even in his Satires there is less neatness and terseness of expression 
than in the Odes and Epistles, in which writings all is put together 
as in mosaic. The very objection urged with truth against Horace, 
that he is common-place, lets us see one of the causes of his popu- 
larity. He says common things a little better than others say them, 
and, though often only a little above mediocrity, is still just above 
it. As we rightly honour a man, who "though he has done no 
remarkable single act, yet is remarkable for the steady and unbroken 
performance of many daily duties," so we are fond of the poet, 
who, though he has not been caught up into paradise, nor been in 
hell, though he does not fill us with the terrors of the imagination, 
or aeiight us with the magic forms of wonder, yet speaks happily 
and pleasantly of the ordinary sorrows and homely joys of life, whom 
we feel to be a genial companion, a trifler in small things, but no 
trifler in what is really good and grave. Wit, wisdom, terseness, 
grace, are the main causes of his popularity. Most of us like him 
best in his lighter vein, as Blair remarked long ago. He was free 
from Lucretius' awkwardness of form, Catullus' extravagance, Pro- 
pertius' affectation, Virgil's solemnity, Ovid's conceits, Tibullus' 
excess of sadness, Lucan's pedantry, Persius' obscurity, Juvenal's 
bad taste. He has no fellow in literature. There was something in 
him that no Greek author, no modern has ; Providence made but 
one Horace ; we love him, and the reason why we cannot fully tell. 

The man Horace is more interesting than his writings, or, to 
speak more correctly, the main interest of his writings is in himself. 
We might call his works " Horace's Autobiography." To use his 
own expression about Lucilius, his whole life stands out before us 
as in a picture. Of none of the ancients do we know so much, not 
of Socrates, or Cicero, or St Paul. Almost what Boswell is to 
Johnson, Horace is to himself. We can see him, as he really was, 
both in body and soul. Everything about him is familiar to us. 
His faults are known to us, his very foibles and awkwardnesses. 



HORACE. 



Yet in his account of himself there is nothing morbid. Like Walter 
Scott, he had a thoroughly healthy mind. In one epistle he speaks 
of himself as if he were not so-minded. But this was plainly only 
a passing malady of soul. He seems almost as a personal friend 
to each of us. What would we not give to spend one evening with 
him, to take a walk over his Sabine farm with him, to sit by his foun- 
tain, to hear him tell a tale, or discuss a point ? We feel bound to 
defend him, as we would defend an absent friend. 

Now the gravest charge brought against him is that of having 
been a servile flatterer in the court of a cruel and cold-hearted 
tyrant, of having been a coward who ran away in battle, a traitor 
to liberty, one who for a farm sold his independence, one who, 
knowing the sorrows and seeing the wounds of his country, "did 
not choose to let his heart bleed," but drowned his cares in cups of 
wine. If this charge against him be just, we are bound to answer 
it. Yet we must be on our guard against exaggeration on the other 
side. Our poet was no prophet or martyr, he was no Cato or 
Socrates, he was not made of the stuff of which those are made 
who die for an idea, whether it be a real idea or a phantasy. As 
we think of his life of 57 years, during full 30 of which he was an 
author, it is striking to consider the events that happened in that 
time. W T hen he was born, Pompey was warring in the east. The 
name of the republic was still great. When he was three years 
old, the conspiracy of Catiline was put down. When he wandered 
as a child in the deep valleys of the Apennines, Julius Caesar was 
subduing Gaul. W T hen he died, the generation was fast passing 
away that remembered the days of republican liberty, and the Roman 
world was under the well-established power of Augustus. Goethe, 
quoted by Niebuhr, said that there never was a more senseless act 
than the assassination of Julius Caesar. Rebellions against Augus- 
tus were quite as senseless. Horace was young when he served 
in the last army of the republic, but his strong common sense must 
have opened his eyes to the character of those who served with 
him, and he must have known quite well that at any rate after the 
battle of Philippi the republic was an idle dream. A person of 
his character adapted himself to circumstances. We perhaps judge 
severely of the principal persons of those times, because we know 
what sad years of despotism followed, and can see clearly how 
rapidly the new system was undermining all manly virtues. But one 
alive then, unable to see all that was to follow, but who had wit- 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. n 

nessed the evils and miseries of civil dissension, might fairly have 
regarded Augustus as the saviour of the state. Tacitus gives an 
epitome of the two opposite views of the character of Augustus. The 
unfavourable view represents him as ambitious, hypocritical, cruel, 
false even to his friends, the destroyer of religion by accepting equal 
honours with the gods, and as deliberately choosing Tiberius for his 
successor, that his own fame might gain by the contrast. It is 
likely that the historian inclines to this view, for he states it last and 
most fully. But Tacitus was a different man from Horace, and lived 
after, not during the reign of Augustus. And the opposite view, 
stated moderately by. Tacitus, represents Augustus' earlier conduct 
as almost necessary ; there was no resource for Rome but in the 
government of one who established peace, enlarged the boundaries of 
the empire, administered justice, restrained licence, and adorned the 
capital with magnificent structures of marble. Horace,.in his praises 
of Augustus, speaks of him, as Virgil does, not as the subverter of the 
republic, but as the legitimate successor of the long line of the great 
men of Rome. That Horace's eulogies of Augustus are greatly ex- 
aggerated cannot be denied. But it was hard for a man like Horace 
to be proof against the repeated kindnesses of the Emperor, kindnesses 
substantial and most pleasantly conferred. Augustus' personal cha- 
racter and manners were simple, like those of Horace himself. Perhaps 
we are apt to be misled by the word Emperor. Augustus had no 
splendid court. His repasts were plain and homely. He was fond 
of fishing, and of playing with little children. He was a man that 
loved his joke. He was very liberal in his gifts. Suetonius expressly 
says that he was greatly beloved by many. On the whole he was a 
steady friend to those that he liked. He could forgive those who 
insulted him. Livy the historian praised Pompey, and Augustus' 
only revenge was to call him the Pompeian historian. According to 
Suetonius, the Emperor made advances to the son of the freedman, 
which he on his part was not eager to accept. When he declined 
them, the Emperor was not offended. The epistles of Augustus 
were extant in the time of Suetonius, but nothing of them is left now, 
except a few extracts preserved by Suetonius. The tone of them is 
kind and playful. As Augustus grew older, he certainly did not 
become a worse man, and the Emperor was very different from the 
triumvir. No Roman ever had received so many outward honours 
as Augustus. Thrice he closed the portals of Janus. The standards 
of Rome, taken by the Parthians from Crassus and Antony, were- 



12 



HORACE. 



restored to him. In five wars he was successful. The ancients 
naturally regarded the fortunate as Heaven's favourites. The dis- 
asters that saddened his declining years did not fall upon him till 
after Horace's death. Tiberius would not have been named by him 
as his successor, had not death taken away Marcellus, Agrippa, 
Drusus. If we compare with the praises of Augustus, Boileau's 
flattery of Louis XIV., whose life in some respects is not unlike that 
of Augustus, the Latin poet will not seem so servile as the French. 
Horace's relations with the Emperor did not destroy his independence 
of spirit. While he was not out of place at the tables of the great, 
simplicity charmed him more, and prosperity did not spoil, but 
improved his character. 

The philosophy of Horace is a subject not altogether wanting in 
interest. The popular opinion is that he was an Epicurean, a 
disbeliever in Providence, to whom expediency was the measure 
of right, a pig, as he calls himself, of the sty of Epicurus. Niebuhr 
speaks of the irony of his Epicurean philosophy. On the other 
hand, Lord Lytton says "Horace is the poet of Eclecticism." And 
August Arnold, in his Life of Horace, tries to prove from certain 
passages of his works that Plato was the poet's favourite philo- 
sopher. A fourth opinion is that Horace's philosophy is little more 
than strong common sense, contentment, and a large experience of 
the world and society. Many are the passages in his writings that 
bear on philosophy. This is not to be wondered at. For philosophy 
was to the educated in ancient times what theology is now. The 
Romans indeed originated no system of philosophy. They showed 
even less invention in philosophy than in poetry. What philosophy 
they had was moral rather than metaphysical. For questions of 
abstract truth they had little taste ; but they professed to look to 
philosophy to guide them in practical life, to mould their character, 
to teach them moderation in prosperity, patience in adversity. 
Thus they cared more for the religion than the theology of philo- 
sophy. Cato was a Stoic, whose stern and harsh virtue refused to 
bend to the exigencies of the times. Atticus, the opposite of Cato, 
was an Epicurean, who professed to place his happiness in retire- 
ment, and passed his days in a calm and inactive repose. Cicero 
professed to choose the middle path, calling himself an Academic, 
but inclining somewhat more to Stoicism in his latter days ; he had 
no very great genius for philosophy, but had the power of expressing 
Greek ideas in polished and flowing language- Horace is neither 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. I3 

like Cato, nor Atticus, nor Cicero. Certainly Horace was no Stoic. 
He had too much sense, too much amiability, and too keen a sense 
of the ludicrous to be a Stoic. For the Stoics were the pedants of 
ancient philosophy, who affirmed all sins to be equal, accounted 
the robbing of a market garden as bad as sacrilege, maintained 
that all error was madness, that a wise man is king in all circum- 
stances however absurd, knows all sciences, is jack-of-all-trades, 
is never angry, or pitiful, or wrong in judgment, never changes his 
mind, never repents. In Cicero's oration for Murena, they are 
held up to ridicule, and again, with much finer wit, in the Satires 
of Horace. And yet Horace, who had a feeling for all the sides of 
human life, never thought of his dislike of Stoicism or his obligations 
to Augustus, when he sang of the noble death of Cato, and the soul 
indomitable amidst the subjection of the world. When he describes 
the upright man firm of purpose, complete in himself, able to despise 
honours, and resist passions, more than a match for fortune, inde- 
pendent of the gods and their gifts, looking death steadily in the 
face, he uses the very language of Stoicism, surely not then in irony, 
but in sober earnestness and faith. Horace was not then exactly 
an Epicurean. He was bound in allegiance to no philosophic 
master. But his love of repose, his contentment, his irony, his 
easy good-nature, his simple habits, his dislike of vulgar pretence, 
of superstition, of arrogance, his bodily temperament, the prosperity 
of his life, inclined him to the gentlemanlike school of Epicurus. 
However, as he grew older, it is plain he longed for something better, 
and desired to free himself from his faults, and was not content 
with his own advancement in virtue, and wished to improve in old 
age ; and whither then should he go for this, except to divine philo- 
sophy? In his later writings the expressions of this wish increase. 
Was he then the poet of Eclecticism? He was the poet of human 
nature in unaffected simplicity. He himself tells us how at one 
time he stood forth as true Virtue's guard and rigid sentinel, at 
another time glided insensibly into the adoption of the accommo- 
dating principles of Aristippus : but he does not speak as if he were 
satisfied with this inconsistency ; rather, that he desires to make such 
progress as he may, though it may be little compared with perfection. 
Horace read and thought for himself, and doubtless judged differ- 
ently at different times ; but he was no eclectic philosopher in the 
sense of deliberately picking out and choosing parts from various 
schools. However, his philosophy was something more than mere 



14 



HORACE, 



common sense and experience. August Arnold, in his Life of the 
poet, appears to speak of his philosophy as the groundwork of his 
moral and poetical character. Rather, it was not so much the 
foundation of his character, as something added to it; not the 
groundwork, but the crown of his life, interesting him more and 
more in his latter days, his guide and support in old age, his 
comfort in those feelings of melancholy from which the tender 
and fine-strung nature of the poet was certainly not always free. 
The passages adduced to show that Plato was his favourite philo- 
sopher do not prove as much as this. We know that Horace in 
his youth studied in the groves of Academus, and that when older 
he read Plato, and advised others to do so, but the Roman poet 
both intellectually and morally was very different from the idealist 
Plato, or his master Socrates, and even his irony was of a distinct 
kind. 

It has been often said that Horace's loves did not touch his heart 
deeply, or perhaps that they are almost imaginary, taken from 
Greek odes for the purposes of his poetry. But however this may 
be, at any rate his friendships were real and lasting. Aristotle in 
his Ethics devotes two out of ten books to the subject of friendship, 
its causes, various kinds, preservatives, how indispensable it is to 
happiness, its relation to the political life, and other points. Cicero 
has a treatise of a very different kind on the same subject, more 
historical and diffuse, entering far less into abstract questions, and 
abounding with platitudes expressed in rounded sentences. But 
neither Aristotle nor Cicero has written so forcibly on friendship 
as Horace has done. Horace is the poet of friendship. He tells us 
in one place that to rave is a pleasure, when a friend is regained ; 
in another place, that so long as he keeps his senses there is nothing 
on earth he can compare to a pleasant friend, and that the light of 
that day is most welcome, which brings friends to him. The names 
of his loves scarcely appear in his Satires and Epistles ; but the 
names of his friends are to be seen through all his writings. 
One of the first of the Odes expresses his wish for the safe voyage 
of his friend Virgil, while almost at the end of the Art of Poetry 
he pays a tribute to the sincerity of Quintilius. Horace's Muse is 
never so happily inspired as by the joys and sorrows of his friends. 
In other passages he wishes that friendship was as blind as love, 
and as partial as the affection of a parent ; and longs for that mutual 
forbearance which would best form and maintain friendships. 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. I5 

Nowhere does he speak in such severe terms as when he condemns 
the wretch, who for the sake of raising a laugh can backbite an 
absent friend. A friend is to be chosen not for his rank, but for his 
character. Chance does not make true friends. Maecenas' house 
is a happy one, because all live there as friends, free from envy 
and intrigue. Horace cares that his friends should like his writings, 
and would grieve if they found no pleasure in reading them. When 
he has obtained all that his own moderate wants need, he makes 
requests for his friends. 

And never surely was a man blessed with more friends. In 
the last satire of the first book of Satires he enumerates some of 
them, Virgil and Varius, two names that always appear together, 
Maecenas, Plotius, Pollio, Bibulus, Servius, and others; and yet 
those there enumerated are few out of the whole number. The 
dearest of his comrades was Pompeius Grosphus, with whom he 
shared the extreme dangers of the disastrous day at Philippi. His 
joy at welcoming him safe home is as keen as his sorrow at the 
death of honest Quintilius, the common friend of Virgil and himself, 
by whose criticisms it is likely enough that either poet profited. 
Virgil, Varius, and Horace formed a literary triumvirate, as 
Walckenaer calls it, and Addison in the Spectator has observed 
that these three poets lived together in a happy union, unsullied 
by envy. Of Varius we know but very little, for his writings have 
met with a different lot from that of his two friends, either through 
chance, or because they were less worth preserving ; and yet Virgil 
speaks of him as a poetic swan, and Horace as the vigorous writer 
of epic poetry, and as one who can describe martial exploits; and 
Quintilian says he would dare to match his Thyestes with any Greek 
tragedy. But Niebuhr well remarks that it is an unhappy subject, 
and that he would rather have his poem On Death than his tragedy. 
Virgil and Horace differed in genius, yet had this in common, that 
they both took the greatest care to give their verses the last finish. 
Many of Horace's friends are scarcely known, save from his men- 
tion of them. One of the more famous was Pollio, a general of 
Julius Caesar, who at one time reconciled Antony and Augustus, 
and to whom Virgil owed the recovery of his farm. When fresh 
troubles broke out between the two leading men of Rome, Pollio 
maintained an honest independence, and, after his successful 
expedition to Dalmatia, retired from the senate and forum, and 
wrote a history of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, in 



x 6 HORACE. 

which he did not fear to praise Brutus and Cassius. Neither the 
history, nor any of his tragedies, compared by the grateful Virgil 
to those of Sophocles, have come down to us. But he appears to 
have been a man of a brave and noble spirit. Another of Horace's 
friends was Messala Corvinus. He had been third in command at 
Philippi, but was received into the friendship of Augustus ; and 
yet he preserved a bold and independent bearing, never afraid to 
say that he had had the honour of being the lieutenant of Cassius. 
Horace and others mention him as a distinguished orator. He was 
the patron of Tibullus. Horace speaks of him as imbued with 
philosophic learning, and yet as one who did not scorn to be a 
pleasant companion. His writings, composed, according to Seneca, 
in pure Latinity, are all lost. 

But the friendship of Horace which we know far the most of is 
that with Maecenas, for Maecenas is to be regarded much more as 
the friend than the patron of the poet. Horace dedicated eight odes 
and four epodes to him. Two satires are addressed to him, and in 
the Satires frequent mention is made of him. Three epistles are 
also addressed to him. Maecenas shares with Melpomene the glory 
of his lyric poetry. Simple and even homely is the ode in which the 
poet invites his luxurious friend to a humble repast. Maecenas clung 
to life with a fondness to be condemned by a Roman, but with which 
his affectionate friend could sympathize, and promised him his 
company in the last dreadful journey, a promise curiously fulfilled. 
If we had an ode on the death of his dearest friend, we might have 
known still more of their happy affection. It was the glory of the 
poet to think that he, the child of lowly parents, had been called 
" beloved" by Maecenas. His friend who was content to remain a 
knight is the example to him of moderation. In one of the finest of 
his odes he tries to tempt his great friend to a pleasant change from 
his cares at busy Rome. He does not scruple, in the last satire of the 
first book of Satires, to mention Maecenas as his friend on equal terms 
with others. Sometimes the poet was too abrupt in his visits, and 
yet always, as it would seem, welcome. There was nothing more he 
need trouble his powerful friend to give him, "blessed enough in his 
one Sabine farm." He can afford to disregard the jealousy which this 
distinguished intimacy had naturally caused him. In happy lines, 
imitated by Swift, he describes the harmless and easy conversation 
in his drives with the great man. Addressed to Maecenas is the first 
of all the Epistles, in which he rises higher than his usual strain in 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. x y 

the praises of philosophy, and virtue, and a good conscience, and 
yet for all that cannot help a joke at the expense of his usual butt, 
the Stoics. It is plain, and indeed not to be wondered at, that the min- 
ister, whose health was weak, and who had many cares and troubles, 
desired the company of such a delightful friend, and complained of 
his long absence. Horace, with a charming playfulness and a mixture 
of independence and respect, reminds his friend of his own weak 
health, his love for the country, his bashful modesty, his gratitude, 
his fondness for ease, his time of life, his willingness to resign all his 
patron's gifts rather than offend him, or mar the freedom of their 
intercourse. If we needed a proof of the truth of what Suetonius 
says about the independence of Horace in his dealings with Augustus, 
we have here an undesigned coincidence in his bearing towards 
Maecenas. To the end their friendship lasted, and the dying states- 
man recommended the poet to the emperor, not knowing that his 
friend was so soon to follow him. Other friendships, as of Epami- 
nondas and Pelopidas, Scipio and Laelius, Cicero and Atticus, have 
received a more distinct and marked attention, but never was one 
more lasting, more honourable, more unaffected ; and if we love the 
memory of Horace as a lyric poet, a satirist, a master of the art of 
writing epistles, he has hardly fewer claims upon our admiration and 
affection, as giving us the pattern of a sincere and grateful friend. 



HOU. 



LIFE OF HORACE BY SUETONIUS. 



[The genuineness of this brief Life of Horace has, like that of so 
many of the writings of antiquity, been called in question ; but Por- 
phyrio, considered the most valuable of the ancient commentators or 
Horace, distinctly asserts that Suetonius wrote it, and the Delphin 
editor truly says that the style of Suetonius plainly appears in it. 
Niebuhr says : "The Life of Horace by Suetonius is very interesting." 
Walckenaer, in his Life of Horace, speaks of this Life as with good 
reason attributed to Suetonius.] 



Horatius FLACCUS, born at Venusia, was the son, as he himself 
tells us, of a freedman, who was a collector of payments made at 
auctions (or, as there is a belief, of a Salter, since a certain person 
wrangling with him taunted him thus : "How often have I seen your 
father wiping his elbow!") M. Brutus, the general in the war which 
ended at Philippi, stirred the spirit of Horace, who served as a 
military tribune : on the defeat of Brutus' side he was pardoned, and 
obtained a secretaryship to a quaestor. Having been introduced first 
to Maecenas, then to Augustus, he became an intimate friend of both. 
Maecenas' affection for him clearly appears from the following 
epigram : " If I love you not, Horace, more than my own bowels, 
may you behold your comrade leaner than any little mule:" and 
still more in his last moments, when he thus briefly recommended 
him to Augustus, " Remember Flaccus, as you would myself," 

The post of private secretary was offered to him by Augustus, 
as is indicated by the following letter to Maecenas: "Hitherto I have 
felt equal to writing to my friends ; but now, being much occupied 
and infirm in health, I want to rob you of our common friend Horace. 



LIFE BY SUETONIUS. 



19 



He will leave then your table, where he dines as a parasite, and 
come to my palace to help me in writing letters." This offer was 
declined by Horace, but Augustus was not offended, and continued 
to press on him his friendship. Letters are still extant, from which 
I give, as a sample, a few extracts. "Assume the same amount of 
right at my house, as though you lived with me ; for be sure you 
would act rightly and not without reason, since I would have as 
much of your company as your health will permit." And again: 
"What a lively recollection I have of you, you may learn from our 
friend Septimius; for it so happened that when he was present I 
mentioned your name. If you are so haughty as to scorn my friend- 
ship, I am not on that account disdainful in return." Often too, 
among other jokes, he called him "a pleasant mannikin," and enriched 
him by several acts of munificence. He admired his writings so 
much, and was so confident of their immortality, as to direct the 
composition of the Secular Hymn, and of the Ode on the victory of 
his step-sons, Tiberius and £)rusus, over the Vindelici; and com- 
pelled the poet on this account to add, after a considerable interval, 
to the three books of Odes a fourth. Having read his Satires, he 
complained in the following terms of his having made no mention 
of himself in them: "Know that I am angry with you, because in 
most of your writings you do not choose to hold converse with me. 
Can you be afraid that your seeming to be intimate with me will 
discredit your name with future ages?" And he drew from him the 
Epistle, which opens with this preface: "Whereas alone you sustain 
the weight of so many duties, protecting the Italian Republic by 
arms, gracing it by morals, amending it by laws, I were a sinner 
against the public weal, were I by a long discourse to waste your 
time, Caesar." 

In form Horace was short and corpulent, as he is described by 
himself in his Satires, and by Augustus in the following letter: 
" Diony.sius has brought me your little book, which I take in good 
part, though I find fault with the smallness of its contents. Indeed 
you seem to me to be afraid of your little books exceeding yourself 
in size. However if you lack inches, you lack not a dear little body. 
So you have my leave to write in a pint pot, since the compass of 
your volume is so very bulky, like your stomach." Horace lived 
generally in rural retirement at his Sabine or Tiburtine form: 
. and his house is still shown near the little grove of Tiburnus. 1 
1 have also had put into my hands elegiacs ascribed to him, and an 

2—2 



20 HORACE. 



epistle in prose, in which he is made to recommend himself to 
Maecenas; but I regard neither as genuine; for the elegiacs are 
common-place, and the epistle besides is obscure, a fault from which 
he was remarkably free. He was born on the 8th of December in 
the consulship of L. Cotta and L.Torquatus. He died on the 27th 
of November in the consulship of C. Marcius Censorinus and C. 
Asinius Gallus, when he had completed his 57th year, having in the 
presence of witnesses named Augustus his heir ; for, owing to the 
violence of his illness, he had no strength to sign his will. He was 
buried at the end of the Esquiline Hill, close to the tomb of Maecenas. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE ODES. 



The poetry which Horace has left us is contained in the Odes, and, 
in a much slighter degree, in the Epodes. It is true that in them, 
as well as throughout the Satires and Epistles, he frequently appears 
as a moralist and a man of humour ; but here only does he write 
as a poet, in the more usual sense of the word.. Didactic verse is 
indeed in some points even better suited to his genius than the 
writing of lyric poetry; and so Dante, in the 4th canto of the 
Inferno, describes the poet as "Satirist Horace;" but the Odes 
have always been the most popular of his works, they were 
certainly his favourites and his pride, it was his glory to be pointed 
out as "the minstrel of the Roman lyre 1 ," and he feels that in the 
Odes he has reared for himself "a monument more enduring than 
brass 2 ." 

Horace is ready to acknowledge his obligations to the lyric 
poetry of Greece, from which he derived his metres, and also not 
a few of his ideas. He speaks of his lute as one which had been 
"first tuned by the Lesbian citizen 3 ;" that is, by Alcasus, whom he 
seems to have taken as his model more than any other single poet ; 
and he declares that Fate has granted to him "the delicate spirit 
of the Grecian Muse 4 ." But in those passages of Horace where 
he has imitated verses of Greek poetry of which we possess the 
originals, there is nothing like plagiarism, or a servile reproduction 
of his author. Not only is the style everywhere completely his 
own, but a different turn is given to the idea, and such a change is 
made in its expression, that it becomes, as it were, fairly his 
property. This defence, which may justly be set up in behalf of 
Virgil, is even more strongly in favour of Horace. The fact that 
the fault of plagiarism, which has very often been imputed to 
Virgil, has but seldom been seriously charged against Horace, 
is due partly to the unquestioned originality of the Satires and 
Epistles; but in some degree it is to be explained by the chance 
which has lost to us most of the works which Horace appears to 
have chiefly adopted as his models; for he does not frequently 
imitate the extant Odes of Pindar. 

Nor does Horace owe to any poet of his own country such 
obligations as Virgil owes to Lucretius. Catullus had indeed already 

1 IV. 3, 23. 2 III. 30, r. 3 I. 32, 5- 4 IT - l6 > 38. 



22 HORACE. 



imitated Greek lyrics, and written odes in one or two of the metres 
used by Horace, in Sapphics and in Choriambics. But a perusal 
of the nth and 51st Odes of Catullus, which are written in Sapphics, 
will show at once how little Horace is indebted to his predecessor. 
The latter of these pieces of Catullus has much merit as a trans- 
lation of one of the extant poems of Sappho ; but it wants the 
compactness and harmony and finish, which give to the Odes of 
Horace a character which belongs to them alone. With regard to 
the Alcaic metre, the boast made by Horace, that he was the first 
to introduce it into Latin literature, is, so far as we can tell, well- 
founded. "Alcaeus, celebrated by no Roman tongue before, I first 
as Latin lyrist have made known 1 ." Horace may truly be said to 
be, on the whole, an eminently original poet. 

The Odes are written in numerous metres, which Horace selects 
with much skill to suit the many and various subjects of his poems. 
The two forms of the lyric stanza which he chiefly employs are the 
grave and stately Alcaic and the sprightly and rapid Sapphic. And 
yet sometimes, and especially in the Secular Hymn, he has suc- 
ceeded in giving to the Sapphic verse an unwonted majesty and 
solemnity ; and he has been no less happy in adapting the Alcaic 
stanza to some of his lighter songs. 

If we divide the Odes into classes, we may enumerate those which 
sing of Love, Friendship, Religion, Morality, Patriotism; poems of 
eulogy addressed to Augustus and his relations ; and verses written 
on miscellaneous subjects and incidents ; and this latter class includes 
some of the most charming of the Odes. 

It is a high compliment to the fascination of Horace's character, 
that those of his Odes which treat of love have attracted so much 
attention, and so much written disquisition. Out of about a hun- 
dred Odes of Horace which we possess, hardly a dozen can fairly be 
called love poems; and in every one of these the love is very clearly 
and unmistakably little more than an ornamental and fictitious 
emotion ; there is no depth of feeling, no absorbing passion. It has 
often been attempted to make one genuine exception in the case of 
Cinara, who gained the poet's affection early in his life, and died 
young. Mr Theodore Martin says "She, if anyone, had touched 
his heart, and haunted his fancy." Horace mentions her name on 
four occasions ; in the first Ode of the 4th Book he says, "I am not 
the man that I was beneath kind Cinara's sway;" in the 13th Ode 
of the same Book, "Fate to Cinara granted fleeting years;" in the 
7th Epistle of the first Book he speaks of the time when he used 
"to lament over the wine-cup the flight of saucy Cinara;" and in the 
14th Epistle of the same Book he refers to himself, when young, 
as one who, "without a present, could please the grasping Cinara." 
It would be going far to assert that allusions such as these express 
anything like tender regret or true affection. The poet seems to 
grieve, not for the loss of Cinara, but for the youth and health and 



1 Epist. I. 19, 32. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE ODES. 2 3 

gaiety he once enjoyed. We do not see in Horace anything like 
the passionate fondness of Catullus; still less do we find in him 
Petrarch's deep and sad remembrance : 

"Ne- gran prosperity il mio stato awerso 
Pu5 consolar di quel bel spirt© sciolto 1 ." 

"And high prosperity coiald ne'er console 
My hapless lot for that fair spirit fled." 

But those of Horace's Odes which may be called poems of 
friendship present an almost startling contrast to the unreality 
and absence of true feeling which we notice in his songs on love. 
Horace as a friend is always genuine and affectionate. The ode 
which prays for the safe return of Virgil from Greece 2 , and that 
which so sorrowfully grieves for the death of Quinctilius, the friend 
of Virgil and himself 3 , his song of joy on the return of his old 
comrade Pompeius Varus 4 , the pleasing Ode addressed to Septi- 
mius 5 , and the pathetic verses in which the poet promises Maecenas 
that he will not outlive him 6 , all these undoubtedly express a sincere 
and earnest friendship. If Horace, as the poet of love, is but weak 
and changeable, his Odes (and his other writings no less) show him 
to us as one of the best and truest of friends. 

Horace, like his friend Virgil, mixes together the ideas of religion 
and fatalism. He has even coupled the names of Fate and the gods, 
as Powers of equal sovereignty. "Nothing more great or good than 
him have Fate and Heaven's grace bestowed on earth 7 ." He once 
speaks of himself as " Heaven's niggard and unfrequent worshipper 5 ;" 
and tells how he was recalled from "Wisdom's foolishness" to a 
belief in the gods, by a peal of thunder in a clear sky. It is hard to 
decide how far this ode was intended to be understood seriously ; at 
the same time, there is, perhaps, more religious feeling in the Odes 
than has been generally allowed. Horace constantly ascribes to the 
due worship of the gods the splendid growth of the Roman domin- 
ion ; and he attributes the recent calamities of the civil wars, and 
other disasters, to the national neglect of religious observances. 
Addressing the Roman people, he says "'Tis because you own your- 
self lower than the gods, that you rule the world. From them is 
every beginning, to them ascribe every ending. Many a misfortune 
have the gods, when slighted, imposed upon afflicted Hesperia 9 ." 
These ideas are repeated so persistently, and with so much empha- 
sis, that it is almost impossible to doubt the sincerity of the poet. 
The Ode addressed to Phidyle 10 is clearly devotional in its spirit. 
Horace has been very successful in imparting to the Secular Hymn 
the tone of patriotic piety. He is fond of dwelling on the duty of 
resignation to the will of Heaven, as in the ode to Leuconoe 11 . In 
one passage, the words of Horace bear a striking resemblance to the 

1 Sonetto CCC. 2 I. 3. 3 I. 24. 4 II. 7. 5 II. 6. 

6 II. 17. 7 iv. 2, 47. 8 I. 34, 1. y HI- 6 > 5- 

10 III. 23. n I. 11. 



HORACE. 



precept in the Gospels, (" If any man will come after me, let him 
deny himself,") and the blessing which follows. "The more that 
each man has denied himself, the more he will receive from 
Heaven 1 ." But it must be observed that the blessings which the 
poet contemplates are those only of contentment and peace of mind. 

The morality which Horace teaches in the Odes is generally lofty 
and earnest in its spirit. He proclaims himself here, as he does 
elsewhere, the philosopher of moderation and contentment. In the 
Introduction to the Epistles, this leading feature of Horace's moral 
philosophy will be found to be more fully noticed. The moral teach- 
ing of Horace is well and concisely stated in the following lines, 
which conclude the 9th Ode of the 4th Book. "More rightly does 
he assume the title of ' blest/ who has learned how to use wisely the 
gifts of Heaven, and to endure stern penury, and who fears disgrace 
worse than death ; he for his dear friends or fatherland is not afraid 
to die.' 7 Nor can it be said that the ideal character here described 
is wanting in excellence or dignity. 

Horace, when he acts as a censor, has only too copious a subject 
on which to employ invective and regret. For in truth, owing partly 
to the long-continued civil wars, and the consequent prevalence of 
insecurity and lawlessness, partly to the introduction of foreign 
luxury, and the increase of political corruption, the morality of Rome 
had already advanced on the road to utter and irretrievable decay. 
"Alas," he exclaims, "we blush for our scars, and guilt, and brothers 
slain 2 !" Perhaps the most striking Odes on the universal degeneracy 
are the 6th and 24th of the 3rd Book : few readers of Horace will 
refuse to recognise in these odes, and also in others, the genuine 
lover of his country and of virtue. 

In connection with the patriotic odes, those odes may be properly 
noticed, which are poems of compliment to Augustus and his rela- 
tions. As to the flattery wh' :h these odes contain, the defence which 
may be put forth in behalf of the poet (and which seems to be good 
as an excuse, if not as a justification,) has already been stated in the 
General Introduction, and need not be repeated here. These two 
classes of Odes are alike at least in one point ; namely, in their style 
and form. They are both written in Horace's grander and more 
elevated manner. Though Horace charms us far less here than he 
does in his lighter pieces, he is, notwithstanding, successful in a high 
degree. The march of the verse is firm and vigorous ; the compli- 
ments and praises are expressed with much skill and dignity ; and 
the feelings of patriotism are uttered with happiness and enthusiasm. 
The 2nd, 3rd and 5th Odes of the 3rd Book are good examples of 
Horace as a patriot, and many lines which they contain have become 
almost proverbs ; the 4th, 6th and two last Odes of the 4th Book 
are specimens of panegyric ; but still the eulogy is tempered with 
patriotism. 

But the private Odes (as they may be called when compared with 

1 HI- 16, 21. 2 I. 35, 33- 



INTRODUCTION TO THE ODES. 



those which treat of public events and public men,) have always 
been the most popular and attractive. Love, Friendship, Religion, 
and Morality, are the subjects under which may be grouped the 
greater number of these Odes. Still, many of them are written on 
various other occasions ; the legends of mythology, the changing 
seasons, the praise of wine, a quarrelsome party, an invitation, 
a fortunate escape from a wolf or the fall of a tree, such are some 
of the miscellaneous subjects of these poems. Sometimes they are 
sprightly and joyous, at other times they are more or less deeply 
marked by a tone of melancholy sadness. It is noticeable that the 
gayer of the Odes occur in the earlier Books ; no doubt advancing 
years and failing health, added to the loss of many of his friends, 
subdued in no small degree the sprightliness of the poet's disposition. 
But indeed Horace has written very few Odes in a spirit of unmixed 
gaiety; when we have mentioned the lively and humorous remon- 
strance with Lydia 1 , the ode of playful encouragement to Xanthias-, 
the address to Barine 3 , and the enthusiastic eulogy of the virtues of 
wine 4 , it would not be easy to make any important additions to the 
list. More commonly, pensive and lively sentiments meet together 
in the same ode ; as in that inscribed to his friend Quintius 
Hirpinus, where thoughts on the swift approach of age, the short- 
lived nature of youth and enjoyment, and the universal mutability of 
things, are introduced. "Spring flowers keep not always the same 
charm ; nor beams the ruddy Moon with face unchanged ; why 
harass with eternal designs a mind too weak to compass them 5 ?" 
These somewhat gloomy reflections are used as a reason why we 
ought to enjoy wisely the pleasures of life, and not to fret. And 
Horace is fond of dwelling upon the interchange of these ideas; 
for he does the same in several others, and not the least pleasing 
of the Odes. As specimens of the excellence of the more or less 
serious of the private Odes, a few may be mentioned out of very 
many. The prophecy of Nereus 6 is perhaps the finest of those 
which are written on mythological subjects ; the address to his page 7 , 
to the fountain of Bandusia 8 , and the dialogue between himself 
and Lydia 9 , are composed in Horace's lightest and most elegant 
manner. In the Ode on the longing of all men for rest 10 , the poet 
enforces his usual doctrines with much happiness and beauty of 
expression ; while the two concluding Odes of the 3rd Book may be 
selected as good specimens, each in its different style, of Horace's 
more grave and elevated verse ; the latter of these two Odes is 
probably the noblest of all poetical anticipations of immortality. 

And never has an immortality of poetical fame been looked 
forward to with greater certainty and more surely-grounded confi- 
dence. It must of course be allowed that Horace is inferior to 
Pindar in power and sublimity, and to Burns in passion and spirit. 
Beranger in many points resembles, but does not equal Horace; 

1 I. 8. 2 II. 4. 3 II. 8. 4 III. »x. 5 II. 11, 9. 

6 I. i$. 7 I. 38. 8 III. 13. 9 III. 9. 10 II. 1*. 



36 HORACE. 



perhaps, however, in tenderness and pathos he sometimes is at 
least not inferior to him. In writing of himself, for instance, Beranger 
is more pathetic than Horace. It may be that the language, which 
is natural and touching in the French poet, would have seemed too 
weak and plaintive to a Roman. As Horace tells us that poverty 
drove him to make verses, so Beranger says that, in his obscurity and 
destitution, Heaven inspired him to sing : 

" Une plainte touchante 
De ma bauche sortit; 
Le bon Dieu me dit: 'Chante, 
Chante, pauvr-e petit ! ' " 

Though Horace so far resembles Beranger, that his lyric poetry 
almost defies translation, yet, in another point, he differs from him 
completely. If the Odes of Horace are hard to translate or imitate, 
his Satires and Epistles have been very successfully adapted by 
many eminent writers of modern Europe. An author, so open to 
imitation in one portion of his works, and yet almost inimitable in 
another, is surely entitled to the praise of especial originality. For 
thus he does not only prove his lasting influence on later poets, but 
also his command of two distinct and separate styles of composition: 
and, in each of these, Horace is still without a rival. 

In the perfection of his taste, in delicacy of touch, in his power 
of so arranging words and phrases as to convey exactly the shade of 
thought which he intends, Horace has never been equalled ; perhaps 
he has never been approached. But it is not only as an artist that 
Horace is remembered and beloved. His goodness as a moralist 
and a patriot, his true affection and faithfulness as a friend, the 
gentle and attractive pensiveness of his reflections, so pleasingly 
blended with happier and more cheerful thoughts, his delightful and 
polished humour, and the kindliness with which he uses his deep 
knowledge of the human heart to prove that vice, apart from its 
criminality, is a folly and a mistake, — all unite to render Horace that 
which he has ever so justly been, the most popular of poets. 



ODES. BOOK I. 



I. 



The dedication to Maecenas. Every man is governed by his ruling 
passion; the Olympian charioteer, the politician, the trader, the 
husbandman, the mercha?it, the man of pleasure, the soldier, the 
hunter. To win the title of a lyric poet is all that I desire. 

Maecenas, sprung from royal ancestors., you that are both my 
shield and glory dear, some men there are who make it their delight 
to gather with the car Olympian dust ; and the goal just cleared 
by the glowing wheels, and^the ennobling palm, uplift them to the 
gods the lords of earth ; one is blest, if the throng of fickle citizens 
rush to exalt him with the ^threefold honours ; another, if he has 
stored in his own granary all that is swept from Libyan threshing- 
floors. Him whose joy it is to delve with the hoe his father's 
fields you can never tempt away, though you warrant him the wealth 
of an Attalus, to cleave with Cyprian bark the Myrtoan main, 
a timorous mariner. The merchant, while he dreads the African 
blast that wrestles with Icarian waves, praises the repose and fields 
of his native town ; presently he repairs his shattered ships ; for 
poverty to bear he cannot learn. One there is, who scorns not 
draughts of mellow Massic 9 nor to take a portion from the heart 
of the day, with limbs stretched now beneath a verdant arbutus, 
now at a hallowed streamlet's soothing source. Many the camp 
delights, and the clang of the trumpet mingled with the clarion, and 
wars that mothers abhor. Beneath the cold sky remains the hunter, 
and forgets his blooming bride, whether his faithful hounds have 
sighted a doe, or the Marsian boar has burst the fine-wrought nets. 

Me the ivy-leaf, the meed of learned brows, makes the partner 
of the gods above ; me the cool grove and the tripping companies 
of Nymphs blended with Satyrs sever from the people : if Euterpe 
keeps not back her flute, and Polyhymnia is not coy to tune the 
Lesbian lyre. But if among lyric bards you grant me a place, 
with crest exalted I shall strike the stars. 

II. 

The subject of this ode is the overflowi?tg of the Tiber, which recalls 
to the poet the .flood of Deucalion. He imagines that the disaster 
is caused by the wrath of Ilia, the wife of the Tiber, at the 
civil wars and the assassination of Julius C&sar. Augustus, as 
Mercury in human shape, is invoked to save the empire. 

Enough of snow and dreadful hail the Father has now sent 
upon the earth, and, smiting with red right-hand the sacred heights, 
has affrighted the city, has affrighted the nations, lest the troublous 



28 HORACE, [I. 3. 

age of Pyrrha should return, who bewailed unwonted prodigies, 
when Proteus drove all his herd to visit the mountain-tops, and 
the tribe of fishes clung to the crown of the elm, which once had 
been the doves' familiar haunt, and timorous hinds swam on the 
o'erspreading flood. We have seen the yellow Tiber, his waves 
whirled back with fury from the Tuscan shore, advance to over- 
throw the monuments of the king, and Vesta's shrine ; while the 
River boasts himself the avenger of Ilia that too grievously com- 
plains, and, wandering from his course, flows beyond his left bank 
through fondness for his spouse, though Jove approves it not. 

Our youth, diminished by their parents' fault, will hear that 
citizens have made sharp the steel, wherewith the formidable Parthi- 
ans would better perish, and shall hear of civil combats. Which of 
the gods shall the people invoke for the fortunes of the sinking 
empire? With what prayer shall the holy virgins solicit Vesta, who 
will not hear their hymns? To whom will Jove assign the duty 
of expiating guilt? Come at last, we entreat thee, thy brilliant 
shoulders robed in cloud, Diviner Apollo ! Or thou, if thou choosest, 
laughing Erycina, around whom Mirth flits, and Love ; or thou, our 
Founder, if thou dost regard thy race and children whom thou hast 
scorned, thou that art glutted with too long a show, thou whom the 
battle-cry delights,, and polished helms, and the glance of the 
Marsian footman, fierce against his bloodstained foe; or thou, kind 
Maia's winged child, if on earth with change of shape thou dost take 
the form of a youth, deigning to be styled the avenger of Caesar ; late 
mayest thou return to heaven, and long be pleased to dwell among 
the people of Quirinus, and may not too early a gale waft thee away, 
offended at the crimes we commit! Here mayest thou rather love 
mighty triumphs, here mayest thou love to be called Sire and Sove- 
reign, and suffer not the Medes to career unchastised, whilst thou art 
our chief, O Caesar! 

III. 

The ode begins with a prayer for the safe voyage of Virgil to Athens, 
which suggests the daring of the earliest mariner. The boldness 
of man in overcoming difficulties set by Nature; which is poeti- 
cally represented as presumptuous opposition to the will of Heaven. 

So may the goddess who rules o'er Cyprus, so may Helen's brethren, 
those shining stars, and the father of the winds direct you, fast bind- 
ing all the rest except Iapyx, O ship, you that carry Virgil as a 
pledge committed to your charge, give him up, I pray you, to the 
Attic shores unharmed, and keep safe the half of my soul. 

Heart of oak and triple brass lay around the breast of him who 
first to the savage sea entrusted his frail bark, and feared not the 
African blast battling with the North- winds, nor the grisly Hyades, 
nor the fury of Notus, than whom there is no mightier lord of the 
Adriatic, whether it be his will to wake or smooth the deep. What 
form of Death's approach can he have feared, who viewed with 
tearless eyes the monsters swim, who viewed the surging sea, and 



I. 4, 5.] THE ODES. 



29 



your accursed rocks, Acroceraunia? In vain has God in his provi- 
dence parted land from land by the estranging Ocean, if nevertheless 
impious barks bound across the waters that should not be touched. 
In its boldness to o'ermaster all things, the race of man dashes 
through forbidden sacrilege ; in his boldness the child of Iapetus by 
guilty fraud brought fire among the nations. After fire had been 
filched from its home in heaven, wasting disease and a strange 
battalion of fevers swooped down on earth ; and the doom of death, 
far removed before, made its coming swift. On wings not given to 
man Daedalus explored the void of air; through Acheron's barrier 
burst the toiling Hercules. 

To mortals there is nought of difficulty ; in folly we assail even 
heaven itself; and through our guilt we do not suffer Jove to lay his 
wrathful thunderbolts aside. 

IV. 

The return ef Spring* The changing season warns us of the 
shortness of life. 

Keen Winter is melting away beneath the welcome change to 
Spring and the Western breeze, and rollers draw the dry keels to 
the sea ; and the herd no more delights in its stall or the ploughman 
in his fire, and with hoar-frosts the meadows are not white. 
Now Venus, Lady of Cythera, leads her quires, while the Moon 
looks down from above, and linked with the Nymphs the beauteous 
Graces shake the ground with measured tread, and fiery Vulcan 
kindles the Cyclops' ponderous forges. Now 'tis the time to twine 
the glossy head with myrtle green or the blossom which the 
imprisoned lands produce; now too 'tis the time to sacrifice to 
Faunus in the shady groves, either with a lamb if he require it, or, 
if he choose, with a kid. 

Pale Death with impartial foot strikes at the hovels of the poor 
and the towers of princes. O my Sestius, blest though you be, 
life's short span forbids us to begin the fragment of a distant hope. 
Soon will darkness overwhelm you, and the fantastic Shades, and 
Pluto's narrow mansion ; whither when once you have travelled, 
you will not by the dice's cast be elected monarch of the wine, 
nor admire the blooming Lycidas, with love for whom the maidens 
will presently glow. 

V. 

To Pyrrha, who is faithless as the winds or seas, and whose fancy 
no lover can fix. 

What dainty boy amid a world of roses, and steeped in flowing 
perfumes crystal- clear, clasps you, O Pyrrha, in the pleasant cave? 
For whom do you bind up your yellow hair in a simplicity of grace- 
fulness? Alas, how oft will he bewail your troth and Heaven's caprice, 
and stare, a novice, at the deep all wild beneath the gloomy blasts ! 
Who in pure faith enjoys you now as gold ; who dreams of you 



30 



HORACE. [I. 6, 7. 



still unestranged, still kind, and knows not of the treachery of the 
gale. Hapless are they to whom unproved you shine! For myself, 
the holy wall by its votive tablet tells that I have hung up my 
dripping garments to the god that is lord of the main. 

VI. 

To Agrippa. His exploits, will be better described in the epic poetry 
of Varius. The lightness of my lyric song suits not the grandeur 
of heroic subjects. 

By Varius, a bird of Homer's strain, you shall be recorded a 
valorous warrior and the queller of the foe, what feat soe'er on 
deck or on his steed the soldier led by you has dauntlessly achieved. 

We, Agrippa, essay not to sing these deeds, nor the direful wrath 
of Peleus' son, who knew not how to yield, nor shrewd Ulysses' 
voyages o'er the sea, nor Pelops' murderous house ; — we, too slight 
for themes sublime ; while reverence, and our Muse, the mistress 
of the unwarlike lyre, forbids us to mar by the fault of our genius 
illustrious Caesar's praises, and your own. 

Who shall record in worthy tones Mars clad in corslet of adamant, 
and Merion black with Trojan dust, and Tydides, by Minerva's 
aid a match for the gods above? 'Tis of feasts we sing, we sing of 
the battles of maidens, who fiercely ply with close-pared nails their 
lovers, whether we be free, or fired at all with love ; and change not 
from our wonted playfulness. 

VII. 

Let others extol the famous cities of the world; the scenery of Tibur 
has the greatest charm for me. Wine drives away the sorrows 
of life; even Teucer, when banished from Salamis, consoled his 
cojnpanions with wine. 

Let others praise famed Rhodes, or Mytilene, or Ephesus, and the 
walls of Corinth with its double sea, or Thebes made glorious by 
Bacchus, or Delphi by Apollo, or Thessalian Tempe. Some there 
are, whose only task it is to extol in long-drawn lay the city of 
virgin Pallas, and to set upon their brow a frontlet of olive, culled 
far and wide. Many a one, to render honour to Juno, will sing of 
Argos meet for steeds, and opulent Mycenae. Myself neither endu- 
ring Lacedaemon nor the plain of fruitful Larissa has smitten with 
delight so keen as the home of echoing Albunea, and Anio's torrent, 
with the grove of Tiburnus, and the orchards watered by the bound- 
ing brooks. 

As the fair South-wind ofttimes sweeps away the clouds from the 
gloomy sky, and does not ever beget the showers, so do you, my 
Plancus, wisely remember to put an end to sorrow and the troubles 
of life with mellow wine ; whether the camp possesses you, all 
agleam with standards, or the tangled shade of your own Tibur shall 
possess you. 

Teucer, while he fled from Salamis and his father, still is said 



I. 8, 9. THE ODES.. 33 

in story to have boimd with a poplar garland his temples dewy with 
the easeful god, and thus addressed his downcast friends: "Where- 
soever a fortune kinder than a sire shall waft us, thither will we go, 
my partners and. comrades. Let nothing be despaired of while 
Teucer is guide, and Teucer conductor: for unfailing Apollo has 
promised that on a new soil shall be a Salamis, whose name shall 
confuse it with the first. Come, my valiant men, ye who oft with 
me have suffered sorer woes than these, now with wine chase away 
your cares ; to-morrow we will sail anew the boundless main." 

VIIL 

To Lydia, who kas> transformed Sybaris from a hardy athlete into a 

doti?tg lover. 

O Lydia, say, by all the gods I beg you, why haste to ruin Sybaris 
by your love? Why is it that he hates the sunny Plain, once able 
to endure the dust and heat ? Why like a soldier does he prance no 
more among his peers, nor curb with sharp-toothed bits the mouths 
of Gallic steeds? Why fears he to touch the yellow Tiber? Why 
shuns he the wrestlers' oil more warily than vipers' blood ; and no 
longer shows arms discoloured by his weapons, he who gained glory 
oft with the quoit, oft with the javelin sped beyond the mark? Why 
lies he hid, as they tell that the son of Ocean Thetis lay, just ere 
the woeful doom of Troy befel, lest his manly attire might drag him 
forth to the slaughter of the Lycian battalions ? 

IX. 

To Thaliarchus. Description of winter scenery. Overcome the 
inclemency of the season with the wa?mth of hospitality. Leave 
the future to Heaven, and enjoy your youth while it lasts. 

You see how stands Soracte, white with its depth of snow, and the 
groaning woods can no longer support their load, and the rivers 
are fast set with nipping frost. 

Lavishly pile up logs upon the hearth, and melt the cold away ; 
and with warmer cheer, my Thaliarch, draw from the two-handled 
Sabine jar the vintage four years old. To the gods commit all 
else; for when once they have laid to rest the blasts, that fiercely 
battle on the boiling deep, no more is the cypress tempest-tossed, 
and the ancient mountain-ash. 

What is to be on the morrow, shrink from searching out; and 
each single day that Fortune shall grant, reckon it as gain; and 

\ scorn not you, in your youth, delightful loves or dances, so long as 
gray-haired. sourness comes not near your bloom. Now too, let the 
Plain and squares, and tender whisperings at nightfall, again and 
again be sought at the preconcerted hour; now too, the pretty 
laugh from the depth of the nook, that betrays the hiding girl, and 

; the forfeit snatched from her arm, or the finger that feigns to be 

1 unyielding. 



32 



HORACE. [I. 10— 12. 



X. 

Hymn to Mercury. 

Mercury, Atlas' grandchild eloquent, that didst skilfully fashion the 
savage manners of the earliest men by language, and the practice of 
the graceful gymnasium ; — of thee will I sing, the herald of mighty 
J ove and of the gods, and the father of the curved lyre, cunning to 
hide away by playful theft whatever thing it please thee. 

At thee, while of yore with threatening voice he tried to cow thy 
boyhood, unless thou wouldst restore the oxen that by craft had 
been taken away, bereft of his quiver Apollo smiled. 

Likewise too with thee for his guide, the wealthy Priam, departing 
from Ilium, eluded the haughty sons of Atreus, and the Thessalian 
watch-fires, and the camp that was the foe of Troy. Thou in their 
blissful abodes dost lay the spirits of the pious, and with golden wand 
control the airy throng, darling of gods above and gods beneath. 

XL 

To Leuconoe. It is vain to enquire into the future. Let us enjoy 
the present ; for this is all we can command. 

Forbear you to enquire, (for we may not know,) what ending Heaven 
has ordained for me, and what for you, Leuconoe ; and essay not the 
Chaldagan tables. How much better 'twill be, to endure whatever 
shall befall ! Whether Jove has granted many winters more, or this 
the last of all, which now against the barrier of pumice-stone 
crushes the might of the Etruscan sea, be wise, strain clear the wine; 
and since our span is short, cut off a length of hope. While we are 
speaking, envious Time will have fled : snatch To-day, and utterly mis- 
trust To-morrow. 

XII. 

Address to Clio. The praise of Jupiter and others of the gods, and 
of the heroes of Roman history. The panegyric of Augustus, who 
on earth is second to Jove. 

What man or hero choose you to record on the harp or the shrill 
flute, O Clio? What god? Whose name shall sportive Echo repeat, 
either on Helicon's shadowy spaces, or on the crown of Pindus, or on 
cool Hsemus? Whence the forests heedlessly followed melodious 
Orpheus, while by his mother's art he stayed the streams' fleet 
glidings and the nimble winds, and was strong in the charm of his 
tuneful strings to lead the attentive oaks. 

What shall I speak before the accustomed praises of the Sire, who 
sways the estate of men and gods, who sways sea and earth and the 
firmament with its changing hours? From whom is begotten nothing 
greater than himself, nor thrives there aught his semblance or 
second ; yet has Pallas assumed the honours next to him. Nor will I 
leave thee unsung, Liber bold in battles, and thee O Maid, the savage 
wild-beasts' foe, nor thee O Phoebus, dreadful with thine unerring 
— — ■ i 



II. 7, 8.] THE ODES. 47 

That nook of the world has charms for me beyond all other 
retreats, where the honey yields not to Mount Hymettus, and the 
olive-berry vies with green Venafrum ; where Jove grants lingering 
Spring and Winters mild; and Aulon's slope, friendly to fruitful 
Bacchus, envies not a whit the grapes of Falerii. 

That spot and those blessed heights summon you and me to- 
gether ; there you shall sprinkle with a duteous tear the glowing 
ashes of your friend the bard. 

VII. 

An ode of congratulation to Pompeius Varus, once the poefs 
comrade in the army of Brutus, on his restoration to civil 
rights. 

You that oft with me have been brought to the hour of extremity, 
when Brutus was commander of the field, who has given you back, 
a Roman, to your country's gods and the Italian sky, Pompey, the 
chiefest of my comrades? with whom I oft have worn away the 
creeping hours with wine, with garland on my hair that shone with 
Syrian balm. 

With you Philippi's fray and headlong flight I proved, my target 
not with honour cast away ; when bravery was crushed, and threaten- 
ing fronts pressed with their chin the ignominious ground. 

But me, all trembling, fleet Mercurius wafted away in thick mist 
through the foe ; you back into the war the billow sucked, and bore 
along on its tumultuous tides. 

Then pay to Jove the feast you are bound to give, and lay 
beneath my laurel-tree your body wearied with a length of warfare, 
and spare not the casks that are designed for you. 

With oblivious Massic fill high the polished tankards ; pour forth 
the perfumes from capacious shells ! Who makes it his task with 
speed to twine our wreaths of pliant parsley or of myrtle? Whom 
will Venus appoint to be lord of our drinking? Not less madly 
than Edonians will I revel; to rave's a pleasure, now my friend's 
regained. 

VIII. 

Barings utter faithlessness, which Heaven will not punish; indeed, 
her beauty and fascination are ever increasing. 

If any punishment for faith forsworn, at any time had wrought you 
harm, Barine ; if you were made less fair by one black tooth, or one 
discoloured nail, I would believe you. But you, so soon as with 
vows you have bound your faithless self, flash forth in beauty far 
more bright than ever, and come abroad, the general interest of 
our youth. 

It profits you to cheat your mother's inurned ashes, and the silent 
stars of night with all the sky, and the gods who are exempt from 
cold death. 'Tis at this, I say, that even Venus laughs, at this the 
guileless Nymphs laugh, and ruthless Cupid, who ever on his gory 
stone makes keen the fiery shafts. 



48 HORACE. [II. 9,10. 

Think too, that the whole generation is growing up for you, for 
you is growing a new throng of slaves ; and former servants leave 
not the dwelling of their impious mistress, though they have 
threatened again and again. 

You mothers fear for their youthful sons, you thrifty old men fear, 
and hapless damsels lately married, lest your fascination make faint 
their bridegrooms' love. 

IX. 

To C. Valgius Rufus on the death of Mystes. Since all troubles 
have their natural end, do not mourn overmuch. Rather let us 
celebrate the latest victories of Augustus. 

Not for ever do showers pour from the clouds upon the squalid 
plains, or fitful blasts trouble the Caspian sea unceasingly, nor in 
the regions of Armenia does lifeless ice stand fixed through all the 
months, Valgius my friend, or are Garganus' woods of oak always 
groaning beneath the Northern gales, and the mountain-ashes being 
widowed of their leaves. 

You ever in tearful strains dwell upon your Mystes taken from 
you ; and the sorrows of your love fail not when the Morning-star 
is rising, nor when he flies before the coursing Sun. 

But the sire, who had thrice fulfilled the term of life, lamented 
not through all his years the lovely Antilochus ; nor did his parents 
or his Phrygian sisters weep for the boyhood of their Troilus ever. 

Cease at last from weak repinings ; and rather let us sing of 
the newly- won trophies of Augustus Cassar, and of icebound Niphates, 
and how the river of Media, added to the conquered nations, 
rolls along its humbled rapids-; and how the Gelonians, within 
the bound assigned them, career in narrowed plains. 

X. 

To L. Licinius Murena. The moderate life is the perfect life. 

Licinius, you will live more perfectly, by neither always keeping 
out to sea, nor, while you warily shrink from the storm, too closely 
pressing on the treacherous shore. 

The man who makes the golden mean his choice, in his security 
is far from the squalor of a ruinous dwelling, in his temperance is 
far from a palace which envy haunts. 

The mighty pine is oftenest tossed by winds, and lofty towers 
fall with heaviest crash, and lightnings strike the mountain's topmost 
peak. 

A heart well trained beforehand hopes for, when the times are 
contrary, fears, when they favour, the opposite estate ; Tis Jove 
who brings again unsightly Winters, 'tis he who sweeps them away. 
If 'tis ill now, it will not also be so hereafter; sometimes Apollo with 
the lyre awakes the silent Muse, and does not always bend his bow. 

Show yourself bold and brave when perils press ; wisely likewise 
take in your sails when they swell with too fair a breeze. 



I. 13, 14.] THE ODES, 33 

shaft. Of Alcides also will I tell, and of the boys of Leda, the one 
renowned for overcoming with the steed, the other with the fist ; and 
when once ur)on the mariner has glittered their fair star, down from 
the rocks the troubled water flows, the winds drop down, and the 
clouds flee away, and the threatening wave reposes on the deep, for 
they have willed it so. 

I doubt whether after these to tell of Romulus first, or the peaceful 
reign of Pornpilius, or Tarquin's haughty fasces, or Cato's glorious 
death. Regulus, and the Scauri, and Paullus that flung away his 
noble soul when the Carthaginian was prevailing, I will gratefully 
record in an illustrious strain, and Fabricius too. Him, and Curius 
with the unkempt locks, a soldier good in war, and Camillus, stern 
penury produced, and an ancestral farm with fitting home. 

As a tree by growth unmarked, increases the fame of Marcellus ; 
shines among all the Julian star, like the moon among the lesser 
fires. 

Father and guardian of the human race, thou child of Saturn, to 
thee by fate is given the charge of mighty Caesar ; mayest thou reign, 
with Caesar thy second in power! He, whether it be that he drive 
along in proper triumph the Parthians subdued, who now hover over 
Latium, or the Seres and Indians, who dwell close by the confine of 
the East, inferior to thee shall rule with equity the wide world ; thou 
with thy ponderous car shalt shake the sky, thou on the sacrilegious 
groves shalt send thy vengeful bolts. 

XIII. 
To Lydia. The jealous lover. The praise of constancy. 

Lydia, when you extol the rosy neck of Telephus, the waxen arms of 
Telephus, alas, my glowing liver swells with labouring bile. Then 
neither my feelings nor my colour abide in settled state, and down 
my cheeks the secret tear-drop flows, that tells with what long-linger- 
ing fires I waste at heart. I feel the flame, whether it chance that 
brawls distempered by wine have marred the whiteness of your 
shoulders, or the frantic boy has with his tooth printed on your lips a 
recording mark. You would not, if you duly listen to me, hope that 
he will be constant, who barbarously hurts the sweet mouth, whose 
kisses Venus has imbued with the quintessence of her own nectar. 

Thrice happy, and more than thrice are they, whom a link 
unbroken binds, and whose love, not torn apart by evil rancours, will 
not loose them sooner than their latest day. 

XIV. 
To the ship of the state. 
Ship, shall new billows bear you back to sea? Alas, what mean you ? 
With vigour press into the haven. See you not how your side is 
stripped of its oarage, and your mast is wounded by the swooping 
Africus, and how your sailyards are groaning, and how your hull, 
not bound with cables,-;.can scarce endure a too tyrannous deep? 

HOR. 5 



34 



HORACE. [I, 15, 16. 



You have not sails unrent, you have not gods to call upon, when 
crushed again with woe. Albeit a Pontic pine, the forest's highborn 
daughter, you may boast your lineage, and your title, an idle thing. 
In painted poops the trembling sailor puts no trust. Unless you owe 
. the winds a laughing-stock, be you circumspect. 

You that were late my sickening weariness, my yearning now, and 
care that is not light, shun you the seas that flow between the 
sparkling Cyclades. 

XV. 

The prophecy of Nereus. 

While in Idaean ships across the deep the shepherd was treacher- 
ously bearing away his hostess Helen, Nereus with rest unwelcome 
whelmed the winds, that he might chant the dreadful destinies : 

" With an evil omen are you leading home her, whom Greece 
with many a soldier will require, confederate to destroy your 
marriage-tie, and Priam's ancient realm. 

"Alas, how steeds, how warriors sweat with toil! Carnage how 
great are you waking for the Dardan race! Even now Pallas is 
making ready her helmet and aegis and car and wrath. Vainly 
bold in the protection of Venus will you comb your tresses, and 
on the unwarlike lyre accompany your songs, the delight of women : 
vainly in your bridal-chamber will you shun the ponderous spears, 
and the^ point of the Cretan wand, and the din, and Ajax swift to 
pursue; still, alas, you will, though late, besmear with dust your 
adulterous locks. 

"Observe you not Laertes' son, the bane of your race? Observe 
you not Pylian Nestor? Dauntlessly press you Teucer 'of Salamis, 
and Sthenelus skilful in the fight, or if there be need to govern the 
steeds, no slothful charioteer : Merion also you will learn to know. 
Lo, the son of Tydeus, that excels his sire, furiously rages to find 
you ; from him you, like a roe, that, forgetful of his pasture, flees 
from a wolf which he has seen on the valley's farther side, will flee 
in your cowardice with deep-drawn panting, though 'twas not this 
you promised to your love. 

"Achilles' angry fleet shall stay the hour of Ilium and the matrons 
of Phrygia : when the predestined winters are past, Achaean fire shall 
burn the dwellings of Ilium." 

XVI. 

An apology. Description of the madness of anger j its origin, and 

fatal effects. 

O daughter fairer than a mother fair, assign to my slanderous 
iambics whatever end you choose ; whether it please you to destroy 
them by fire, or by the Adrian sea. 

Not Dindymene, nor the Pythian god who dwells within his 
sanctuary, nor Liber, stir so violently the soul of their ministers ; 
the Corybantes clash not so furiously their ringing cymbals, as fits 



I. 17, 18.] THE ODES. 3S 

of direful anger : them neither Noric sword can cow, nor wrecking 
sea, nor fierce flame, nor Jove's self sweeping down with dreadful 
crash. 

Tradition tells that Prometheus was constrained to add to the 
elemental mud a particle severed from every creature, and that he 
attached to our stomach the fury of a raging lion. 

'Twas anger that in crushing ruin laid Thyestes low, and has 
proved for lofty cities the consummating cause, why it was that they 
perished utterly, and that the foe's insulting army printed their walls 
with the hostile plough. 

Hush your passion ; myself too the fire within the breast stung in 
my pleasant youth, and sent me frantic to the iambic's rush : 
now I would fain exchange my wrath for kindness, if only you 
will become my friend, when my taunts are retracted, and give me 
back your heart. 

XVII. 

The poet invites Tyndaris to his Sabine villa near mount Liter e- 

tilis. 

Oft for the pleasant Lucretilis fleet Faunus exchanges Lycseus, 
and ever from my she-goats keeps away the fiery summer and the 
rainy blasts. 

Unharmed amid the safety of the grove, the mates of the noisome 
lord roam in search of lurking arbute trees and beds of thyme, 
and fear not green adders, nor the wolves of Mars which haunt 
Hsedilia; whene'er, my Tyndaris, low Ustica's vales and polished 
rocks have echoed with the tuneful flute. 

Me Heaven protects ; to Heaven my piety and Muse are dear. 
Here plenty, rich in the glories of the country, shall flow to the full 
for you from bounteous horn. 

Here in a secluded dell you shall shun the heat of the dog-star, 
and sing with the Teian lute of those who were love-sick for one, 
Penelope and Circe crystal-fair: here beneath the shade you shall 
quaff cups of harmless Lesbian; and Thyoneus child of Semele 
shall not mingle the fray with Mars, nor shall you dread the 
suspicion of headstrong Cyrus, lest he cast his intemperate hands 
on one too weak to encounter him, and rend the garland fastened 
to your hair, and your guiltless dress. 

XVIII. 

The praise of wine. The pernicious effects of inte?nperance. 

My Varus, plant no tree before the hallowed vine, round Tibur's 
kindly soil and Catilus' walls. For to them that drink not Heaven 
has presented all things as difficulties ; and gnawing anxieties thus 
only flee away. Who croaks of irksome warfare, or of penury, after 
wine? Who sings not rather of thee, O father Bacchus, and of 
thee, fair Venus? 

But that no man may o'erpass what temperate Liber gives, the 



36 HORACE. [I. 19—21. 

brawl of Centaurs with Lapithae, fought to the death over their 
wine, gives us warning, Evius warns us, no gentle Power to the 
Thracians, when in ravenous frenzy they separate right and wrong 
by passion's narrow line. 

I would not w T ake thee, if thou will it not, bright Bassareus, nor 
drag beneath the open sky what is wrapt in varied foliage. Restrain 
the terrific cymbals, and the Berecynthian horn withal ; for blinded 
Self-love follows close upon them, and Boast, that lifts too high his 
empty head, and an Honour who flings abroad his secret, and 
becomes more transparent than glass. 

XIX. 

The poefs love for Glycera. He designs a propitiatory sacrifice to 

Venus. 

The Loves' cruel mother, and Theban Semele's boy, and frolic 
Freedom, bid me give back my heart to the passions that were 
ended. 

'Tis Glycera's radiance that fires me, she who gleams fairer than 
the Parian marble ; her charming perversity fires me, and her face, 
too dazzling-dangerous to behold. 

Venus, with all her power rushing on me, has forsaken Cyprus, 
and suffers me not to sing of the Scythians, and the Parthian, 
whose courage lies in his retreating steeds, and of themes that are 
irrelevant. 

Here place living turf, here place vervain, ye boys, and incense 
with a bowl of two-years' wine ; her approach will be gentler when a 
victim has been slain. 

XX. 

An invitation to Maecenas. 

You'll drink in modest bowls poor Sabine wine, which in a Grecian 
jar my own hands stored and sealed, when in the theatre such 
applause was given you, dear knight Maecenas, that all at once the 
banks of your ancestral river, and the sportive echo of the Vatican 
hill sounded back your praises. 

Caecuban you may drink, and the grape the press of Cales has 
subdued; my cups the vines of Falerii mix not, nor the hills of 
Formiae. 

XXI. 

Hymn to Diana and Apollo. 

Sing of Diana, blooming maidens ; boys, sing of Cynthius with the 
unshorn locks, and of Latona deeply loved by sovereign Jove. 

Extol ye her who delights in streams and the foliage of the 
groves, whatever the leafage be that stands forth either on cool 
Algidus, or on the dark forests of Erymanth, or of Cragus green ; 

O youths, extol ye, with not fewer praises, Delos, the native island 
of Apollo, and himself, with shoulder adorned with the quiver, 






I. 22—24.] THE ODES. 37 

and the lyre, his brother's gift. 'Tis he who will drive away tearful 
Avar, he will drive away woeful dearth and plague, from the people, 
and from Caesar our prince, against the Parthians and Britons, 
prevailed upon by your prayer. 

XXII. 

To Aristius Fuscus. The good man, wherever he be, is safe from 

harm. 

The man of faultless life, and clear from crime, my Fuscus, needs 
not the Moorish javelins, nor bow, nor quiver with its brood of 
poisoned shafts ; 

Whether o'er the burning Syrtes he choose to make his way, 
or o'er inhospitable Caucasus, or the regions which Hydaspes washes, 
the river of romance. 

For in the Sabine wood, while I sing of my Lalage, and wander 
o'er the bound with troubles cleared away, a wolf fled from me 
though unarmed; such a monster as Daunias, home of warriors, 
rears not in her spacious groves of oak, nor Juba's land begets, the 
lions' parching nurse. 

Set me amid the plains of lethargy, where not one tree is fanned 
by summer gale, that quarter of the world which fogs oppress, and 
the malice of the sky ; 

Set me beneath the sun's too neighbouring car, in a land where 
dwellings may not be : I'll love my sweetly smiling, sweetly speaking 
Lalage. 

XXIII. 
To Chloe. 

You shun me, Chloe, like a fawn, that seeks o'er pathless hills his 
timorous dam, with vague alarm at gales and rustling wood. 

For whether the approach of Spring chance to quiver on the 
dancing leaves, or the green lizards brush through the brake, he 
quakes in heart and knees at once. 

But I pursue you not to mangle you, like savage tiger or Gaetulian 
lion : cease to follow your mother at last, since now you are ripe for a 
lover. 

XXIV. 
To Virgil. A lament for the death of Quinctilius. 

What shame or bound can there be to our regret for a life so loved? 
Prompt the mournful strains, Melpomene, thou to whom the Sire has 
given with the harp a voice crystal-clear. 

Does then an endless sleep o'erwhelm Quinctilius? When shall 
Reverence, and the sister of Justice, untainted Honour, and naked 
Truth, ever find one to be his peer? 

He fell bewept by many a good man ; wept for by no one, Virgil. 
more than you; you vainly pious, alas! require Quinctilius of the 
gods, entrusted not to them for such an end. 

But if more winningly than Thracian Orpheus you played a lyre 
to which the trees would listen, blood would return not to the 



38 HORACE, [I. 25—27. 

bodiless ghost, which with his awful wand Mercurius, not gentle to 
dissolve the fates for prayer, has driven once to join his gloomy 
flock. 

'Tis hard! But patience makes the woe more light, whatever 'tis 
forbidden to amend. 

XXV. 
Horace taunts Lydia with her approaching old age. 

More seldom do the saucy youths shake your closed casements with 
their frequent knocks, and they rob you not of your sleep ; and that 
door loves the lintel, which once its hinges moved full easily ; you 
hear less and less now: "While I your lover pine the long nights 
through, Lydia, are you sleeping?" 

In your turn, when an old woman, you will weep for your scornful 
paramours in the solitude of an alley, a slighted thing; while the 
Thracian wind more fiercely raves in the time between the moons ; 
when such burning passion and lust as is wont to madden the horse's 
dam, shall rage around your fevered heart : and you will ever lament 
because the joyous youths are better pleased with ivy green and 
myrtle dusk, and consign the sapless leaves to Hebrus, the mate of 
Winter. 

XXVI. 

The poet) as the happy friend of the Muses , begs Pimplea to inspire 
him to sing the praise of Lamia. 

I, the Muses' friend, commit sorrow and fear to the wanton winds, to 
bear them to the Cretan sea; I, who am utterly indifferent by whom 
the monarch of the region of frost beneath the Northern star is 
dreaded, or what it is that alarms Tiridates. 

O thou who joyest in unsullied springs, twine sunny flowers, twine 
a garland for my Lamia, delightful Pimplea ! Without thee worth- 
less is the praise I give : him with chords untouched before, him 
with Lesbian quill to immortalize, 'tis meet for thee and thy sisters. 

XXVII. 

The wine-party. Horace endeavours to restrai?i his quarrelsome 

companio7is. 

'Tis like Thracians to fight with goblets created for the purpose of 
delight : away with the barbarous custom, and keep far from bloody 
brawls the temperate lord of wine! How monstrously does the 
Median scimitar disagree with wine and lights! Hush the sacrilegi- 
ous tumult, my friends, and remain still with elbow at rest. 

Wish you that I too take a share of the potent Falernian ? Let 
the brother of Megilla of Opus say with what wound, with what 
shaft, he is perishing in bliss. 

Does he falter in frankness? I will drink for no other reward. 
Whatever charmer is your mistress, she burns you not with fires 
that need raise a blush, and you always err with a love of gentle 
birth. Whatever you have to tell, commit it to trusty ears. 



39 



I. 28, 29.] THE ODES. 

Ah wretch, in what a Charybdis were you struggling, youth worthy 
of a better flame ! What witch, what wizard will have the power to 
release you by Thessalian drugs? What god? Scarce will Pegasus 
unloose you entangled in a Chimasra of triple shape. 

XXVIII. 

Dialogue between a sailor and the spirit of the philosopher Archytas. 
The imiver sal fate. The duty of giving to the dead the rites of 
burial. 

Sailor. 

You, who measured sea and land and the sand that knows no 
numbering, Archytas, the slight gift of a little dust confines hard by 
the Matine strand; and nought does it avail you to have explored the 
mansions of the sky, and with the intellect to have sped through the 
sphere of heaven ; for you were doomed to die. 

The sire of Pelops likewise fell, though the guest of the gods, and 
Tithonus wafted to the air above, and Minos admitted to the secret 
counsels of Jove ; and Tartarus holds the son of Panthus a second 
time sent down to Orcus ; albeit, since by unfastening his shield from 
the wail he bore witness to the age of Troy, he had surrendered to 
black Death nought beyond his sinews and skin ; one who is, in your 
judgment, no mean prophet of Nature and Truth. 

But all one night awaits, and the path of death, once to be trodden 
by all. Some the Furies give to make a show for grisly Mars ; the 
greedy sea is set to be the sailor's bane; the corpses of old and 
young are blended and crowded together, and ruthless Proserpine 
never passed one life. 

Archytas. 

Myself too Notus, the impetuous companion of sloping Orion, 
whelmed in the Illyrian waves. 

But you, sailor, grudge not through unkindness to give to my 
unburied bones and head a particle of shifting sand ; so, with what- 
ever tempest Eurus shall threaten Hesperian waves, may Venusia's 
woods be smitten, you be spared ; and may a rich reward flow down 
to you from whence it can, from the grace of Jove and from Neptune, 
the guardian of holy Tarentum ! 

Reck you not to commit an impiety which hereafter will work woe 
for your descendants? Perchance too, due judgment and high 
retribution await your own self; I shall not be left with my prayers 
unavenged, and no atonements will absolve you. 

Although you are in haste, not long need you delay ; when you 
have thrice cast dust upon me, you may speed. 

XXIX. 

A remonstrance addressed to I c cites on his intention of joining the 
expedition to Arabia Felix. 
Iccius, do you envy now the treasures that make Arabia blest, and 
are you preparing grim war against the monarchs of Saba:a not 
subdued before, and weaving fetters for the terrible Mede? 



40 HORACE. [I. 30—32. 

Who from among barbarian virgins shall be your handmaid when 
her love is slain? What boy from a palace, with glossy perfumed 
locks, shall be set beside your cup, skilled to aim on his father's bow 
the Seric shaft? 

Who will say that river-currents cannot glide backward up the 
steep hills, and Tiber reverse his course, when you are purposing 
to exchange for the Iberian corslet the books you have bought up 
far and wide, the noble books of Panaetius, and the Socratic school, 
though you promised better things than these? 

XXX. 

A Prayer to Venus. 

Venus, queen of Cnidos and Paphos, desert thy beloved Cyprus, 
and change thy dwelling to Glycera's shrine, who invites thee with a 
wealth of incense. 

With thee may thy glowing boy, and the Graces with zone 
unloosed, and the Nymphs, haste hither, and Youth, who without 
thee is not winning, and Mercury. 

XXXI. 

Prayer to Apollo on the consecration of Ms temple. The happiness 

of contentment. 

What asks the bard of his enshrined Apollo? What prays he, as 
from the bowl he pours the new-made wine? 

Not for the rich Sardinia's plenteous crops, not for the hot 
Calabria's goodly herds, not for gold or Indian ivory, not for 
the meadows which Liris wears with peaceful flow, a voiceless 
stream. 

Let those to whom Fortune has given the vine restrain it with the 
knife of Cales ; and let the wealthy merchant from golden chalice 
drain wines for which he has bartered Syrian merchandise, a man 
beloved by Heaven itself, since, truly, three or four times in the 
year, he visits the Atlantic deep unharmed. My food is the olive, 
mine is the endive and the wholesome mallow. 

Child of Latona, grant that I may enjoy what I have won, both 
with health of body and with mind unimpaired ; and that I may pass 
an old age not dishonoured, nor one which lacks the lyre. 

XXXII. 

To the lute of lyric poetry. 

We are summoned. If at ease beneath the shade we have with thee 
composed a sportive lay, which may live for this year and more, 
come, prompt, my lute, a song of Latium, 

Thou that wert first tuned by the Lesbian citizen ; who, though 
dauntless in war, yet in the midst of arms, or if on the oozy shore 
he had moored his storm-tossed bark, would sing of Liber, and 



[I. 33-35-] THE ODES. 



41 



the Muses, and Venus, and the boy who clings ever to her side, 
and Lycus in the beauty of his black eyes and black hair. 

O shell, that art the ornament of Phoebus and pleasing to the 
feasts of sovereign Jove, that art the sweet soother of troubles, 
welcome to me, whene'er I duly call thee. 

XXXIII. 

To the -poet Albius Tibullus. The whims and inconsistencies of 

Love. 

To warn you, Albius, not to grieve more than overmuch in your 
pining for the ruthless Glycera, nor chant those piteous elegies, 
because she has broken faith, and a younger rival outshines you : — 

Lycoris with the beautiful low brow the love of Cyrus consumes ; 
Cyrus is drawn towards the unkind Pholoe; but she-goats with 
Apulian w r olves will mate, ere for a base love Pholoe is frail. 

Such is the will of Venus, whose pleasure it is in cruel sport to 
drive beneath her brazen yoke forms and minds ill-matched. My 
own self, though a better mistress wooed me, Myrtale has bound 
fast with pleasing chain, a freedwoman, less gentle than the tides 
of Adria, when he hollows the Calabrian creeks. 

XXXIV. 

The poefs 7'ecantation. The power of Jove and of Fortune. 

Heaven's niggard and unfrequent worshipper, while versed in 
Wisdom's foolishness I stray, now backward am I forced to turn 
my sails, and retrace the course I had forsaken: 

For the Father of the sky, who mostly cleaves the clouds with 
gleaming flash, has driven through the undimmed firmament his 
thundering steeds and flying car ; whereby the ponderous earth and 
wandering streams, whereby the Styx and grisly site of hateful 
Tsenarus, and the confine of Atlas, are rocked. 

To change the highest for the lowest, God has power; and he 
makes mean the man of high estate, bringing what is hidden into 
light : from one, with napping loud, Fortune the spoiler bears away 
the crest, 'tis her joy to place it on another. 

XXXV. 

Hymn to Fortune. Her caprices. Description of Necessity her 
forerunner, and of Honour and faithlessness. The goddess is 
intreated to preserve Augustus in his expeditio7i to Britain. A 
lament for the civil wars. 

Lady, who rulest Antium thy joy, strong to lift even from the lowliest 

place our mortal frame, or turn proud triumphs into funerals, thee 

the poor tiller of the country woos with earnest prayer, thee, the 

mistress of the main, he woos, whoever with Bithynian keel pro- 

I yokes the Carpathian deep. 



42 



HORACE, [I. 36, 37. 



Thee the savage Dacian, thee the roving Scythians, and cities and 
nations, and valiant Latium, and the mothers of barbarian kings, and 
purple tyrants dread, lest with the foot of outrage thou dash down 
the standing column, or lest the thronging people arouse the loiterers 
to arms, to arms ! and break the sovereignty. 

Thee always fell Necessity precedes, who bears in hand of brass 
large spikes and wedges, and the stringent clamp is there, and 
molten lead. 

Thee Hope adores, and Honour seldom seen, clad in white robe, 
and scorns not to be thy mate, whene'er with changed garb thou dost 
prove a foe, and forsake a mighty house. 

But the faithless crowd draws back, and the false harlot, friends fall 
away when casks are drained to the lees, too treacherous to bear the 
yoke alike. 

Mayest thou guard Caesar, resolved to travel to the Britons at the 
limit of the world, and the new-raised swarm of warriors destined to 
bring terror to the regions of the East and to the Red Sea! 

Alas, we blush for our scars, and guilt, and brothers slain ! From 
what deed have we shrunk, we, a hardened age ? What have our 
impious hands left unpolluted? From what, through respect for the 
gods, has our youth restrained its violence? What altars has it 
spared? Oh, would that on a new anvil thou wouldest forge the 
blunted steel into another shape against the Massagetae and the 
Arabs ! 

XXXVI. 

An ode of congratulation to Plotius Numida, on his safe return 

from Spain. 

'Tis our joy with incense and the lyre, and the duteous sacrifice of a 
steer, to soothe the guardian gods of Numida, who, safe from the 
uttermost parts of the West, gives many a kiss among the friends he 
loves; yet more to 'none than to his dearest Lamia, remembering 
well his boyhood spent beneath the selfsame ruler, and the toga which 
they changed together. 

Let not the fair day lack its mark of chalk, nor be there limit to 
the unbroached flask, nor rest to feet that bound in Saliar mode. 
And let not Damalis of the copious cups overmaster Bassus in the 
Thracian draught; nor let the rose be absent from our feast, nor 
parsley ever green, nor lily frail. 

All upon Damalis will set their languishing eyes ; yet not from her 
new love Damalis will be torn, clinging more close than twining ivy- 
folds. 

XXXVII. 

An ode of joy for Cessans victory at Antium. Cleopatra; her frantic 
designs, downfall, and brave death. 

Now should we drink, now should we beat the ground with merry 
foot, now, my friends, 'twere meet to adorn with the Saliar feast the 
couch of the gods. 



I. 38.] THE ODES. 43 

Ere now it were a sin to draw forth the Caecuban from our ances- 
tral stores, while the Queen was plotting against the Capitol the 
wreck her madness dreamed of, and destruction for the empire ; with 
her tainted herd of men degraded by disease ; she who was reckless 
enough to hope for anything, and made drunk by the smiles of 
Fortune. 

But scarce one vessel rescued from the flames lowered her frenzy ; 
and Caesar recalled to genuine alarms her mind distraught with 
Mareotic wine, when with the oar he chased her close as she flew away 
from Italy, (as a hawk pursues the gentle doves, or a fleet huntsman 
the hare o'er snowy Hasmonia's plains,) to consign to fetters the mon- 
ster of Fate : 

But she, seeking the means of death in nobler mood, shrunk not 
in womanish terror from the sword, nor with swift fleet essayed to 
mend her loss by winning secluded shores. 

Likewise she dared with countenance serene to visit her fallen 
palace, and bravely take in hand the fierce snakes, to drink into her 
frame the deadly venom, become more dauntless when resolved to 
die; for in truth she scorned to be borne as a subject in the cruel 
Liburhian galleys to grace the haughty triumph, a woman of no 
mean spirit. 

XXXVIII. 

To his page. 

Boy, I detest a Persian sumptuousness ; wreaths twined with bark of 
linden are distasteful ; care not to search in what spot perchance may 
linger the late-blowing rose. I ask you not with busy toilsomeness to 
add aught to simple myrtle ; myrtle misbeseems not you my cupbearer, 
nor myself as I drink beneath the plaited vine. 



BOOK II. 



I. 



To Asinius Pollio, the advocate arid writer of tragedy, who is noix 
composing a history of the civil wars. A. lament for the carnage 
caicsed by the conflicts of Romans with their fellow-citizens. 

The civil strife which took its rise from the year when Metellu: 
.was consul, and the causes and faults and measures of the war, 
and the game of Fortune, and the pernicious leagues of the chiefs, 
and the arms besmeared with bloodshed not atoned for yet, all this, 
a labour full of perilous hazard, you make your theme, and tread 
o'er fires that lurk beneath the treacherous ashes. 

For a time let the Muse of solemn Tragedy be absent from the 
stage ; presently, when you have set forth the history of the state, 
you will resume your majestic part in the Cecropian buskin; you, 
Pollio, the illustrious safeguard of the sad accused, and of the delibe- 
rating senate-house ; for whom, by your Dalmatian triumph, the 
laurel has created endless honours. 

Even now with the horns' terrific clang you stun the ear, now 
the clarions ring, now the flash of arms affrights the flying horse 
and horseman's eyes. Now I seem to hear of mighty leaders soiled 
with no dishonourable dust; and all parts of the world subdued, 
but Cato's dauntless soul. 

Juno, and each one of the Gods that was the friend of Africa, who 
had retreated powerless, and left the land unavenged, have rendered 
the grandsons of the conquerors to be an offering to Jugurtha's 
shade. 

What plain is not enriched by Latin blood, and by its graves 
attests not our impicus combats, and the crash of falling Italy, 
which Media heard? What flood or what streams know not our 
woeful war? What sea has Daunian carnage not discoloured? What 
coast is free from stain of our gore ? 

But do not quit your jests, my froward Muse, to repeat the studies 
of the Cean dirge: with me beneath a Dionsean grot seek for the 
measures of a lighter quill. 

II. 

To Sallustins Crispus. The wise use of money. The love of 
gain grows by self-indulgence. The moderate man is the genuine 
king. 

No beauty has silver which the hoarding earth conceals, my Sallust, 
you that are a foe to the metal, unless it shine by moderate use. 



II. 3, 4-] THE ODES. 4 - 

Through a length of ages will Proculeius live, famed for the 
father's heart he bore his brothers ; him undying Fame will waft 
along upon a wing that dare not droop. 

More widely would you reign by subduing an avaricious spirit, 
than if you united Libya to distant Gades, and the Carthaginian on 
either shore were subject to you alone. 

The scourge of dropsy grows by self-indulgence, and does not 
banish thirst, unless the source of the malady has fled from the veins, 
and the watery languor from the pallid frame. 

Virtue, who differs from the crowd, takes Phraates from the 
number of the blest, though restored to the throne of Cyrus, and 
teaches the people to disuse untrue expressions; conferring upon 
him alone a realm, and crown secure, and lasting laurel-wreath, who 
views enormous hoards with eye that looks not back. 

III. 

To Quintus Dellius. The wisdom of moderation; the certainty of 
death. Let us enjoy our life while we may y for death will soon 
strip us all alike of our possessions. 

Be careful to preserve amid difficulties a tranquil mind; no less 
In prosperity one restrained from overweening joy, my Dellius, you 
that are doomed to die, whether you have lived in sorrow all your 
years, or if, reposing in some grassy nook, you have made yourself 
happy throughout the holidays of life with a deep-stored cask of 
Falernian. 

Where the mighty pine and the white poplar love to unite their 
branches' hospitable shade, and the fleeting brook strives to hurry 
onward down its winding channel, — hither bid them bring wine, 
and perfumes, and the too short-lived blossoms of the pleasant rose ; 
while circumstances and youth allow us, and the gloomy threads 
of the three sister-fates. 

You will quit all those wooded domains you have purchased, and 
the mansion, and the villa which yellow Tiber washes ; you will 
quit them, and your heir will enjoy the wealth that you have piled 
on high. 

Whether the rich descendant of ancient Inachus, it matters not, 
i or poor and of the lowliest birth you sojourn beneath the sky, the 
victim of Orcus who never feels compassion. 

We all are driven to the same place ; the lot of us all is shaken in 
the urn, sooner or later sure to come forth, and embark us in the 
boat for a region of endless exile. 

IV. 

To Xanthias Phoceus. Horace, by an ironical panegyric, rallies 
his friend on his love for Phyllis, his slave. 

To prove that you need not feel shame for the love you bear your 

i handmaid, Xanthias Phoceus, — the slave Briseis, by her snowy 

bloom, melted Achilles arrogant before; the beauty of Tecmessa, 



46 HORACE. [11-5,6. 

his captive, melted her lord, Ajax, Telamon's son ; Atrides, in the 
midst of the triumph, was fired with love for a maid among the 
spoil; after the barbarian squadrons had fallen beneath the con- 
quering Thessalian, and the loss of Hector had delivered to the 
weary Greeks a Pergamus easier to be overthrown. 

You cannot tell that the parents of your yellow-haired Phyllis are 
not opulent, and give splendour to you as their son-in-law; no doubt 
she mourns her royal blood, and household-gods unkind. 

Be sure that she whom you have made your love is not from 
the villainous crowd ; and that one so constant, one with such a 
distaste for gain, cannot have been born of a mother that would 
cause you shame. 

Heart-whole I praise her arms, and face, and dainty legs; 
dream not of suspecting one whose life has hurried on to close its 
fortieth year. 

v - 

To a friend on his love for Lalage. 

As yet she cannot bear the yoke on a submissive neck, as yet she 
cannot share her fellow's task, or brook the passion of the bull's 
impetuous love. 

Your heifer's heart is o'er the grassy plains, while now in the 
streams she lightens the o'erpowering heat, now is all eagerness to 
play with the calves in the watery willow-copse. 

Away with longing for the unripe grape ; soon to your wish will 
many-coloured Autumn streak the dull clusters with a purple hue. 

Soon she will follow you; for time speeds fiercely on, and will 
add to her sum of life the years it takes from you ; soon with saucy 
brow Lalage will woo a bridegroom; she, more beloved than Pholoe 
the coy, or Chloris, whose white shoulder beams as bright, as shines 
the unclouded moon on nightly seas, or Cnidian Gyges; whom if 
you set amid a group of girls, the difference hard to see would 
wondrously mislead discerning guests, by his flowing tresses and 
perplexing face. 

VI. 

To his friend the Roman knight Septimius, who would go with hint 
to the ends of the earth. The poet prays that Tibur may be the 
resting-place of his old age; or, if that may not be, he will choose 
the country which lies about Tarentum. 

My Septimius, you who with me would visit Gades, and the 
Cantabrian untaught to bear our yoke, and the savage Syrtes, 
where the Moorish wave seethes ceaselessly: — 

May Tibur, founded by the Argive colonist, be, I pray, my age's 
resting-place ; may it be the goal to one who is weary of voyages 
and travels and warfare ! 

If Fate's unkindness bar my journey thither, I will haste to the 
stream of Galaesus dear to the skin-clad sheep, and to the fields that 
once were ruled by Phalanthus the Laconian king. 



II. n, ii.1 THE ODES. 



XL 

Horace in a half -playful tone advises his friend Quintius Hirpinus 
to enjoy life wisely, and not to fret. 

What the warlike Cantabrian is plotting, and the Scythian parted 
from us by the barrier of the Adrian sea, care not to enquire, my 
Quintius, and fret not for the needs of a life whose wants are few. 

Backward flies unwrinkled youth, and grace, while withered gray- 
ness banishes playful loves and easy sleep. 

Spring flowers keep not always the same charm, nor beams the 
ruddy Moon with face unchanged : why harass with eternal designs 
a mind too weak to compass them? 

Why not, either beneath a lofty plane-tree or this pine, stretched 
all carelessly, and our gray locks fragrant with the rose and 
anointed with Assyrian nard, drink while we may? Evius melts away 
consuming cares. 

What boy with speed will temper in the passing brook our cups 
of fiery Falernian? Who will entice shy Lyde from her home? Go, 
bid her hasten with her ivory lute, her tresses bound into a comely 
knot in the fashion of a Spartan girl. 

XII. 

Horace pleads the unfitness of his lyric poetry to record the wars 
of the Romans, or the battles of Mythology. He advises Maecenas 
to write in prose the history of Ccesar's campaigns, while he 
himself will sing the praises of Licymnia. 

You would not wish that fierce Numantia's lingering wars, or 
accursed Hannibal, or the Sicilian sea crimsoned with Cartha- 
ginian blood, be fitted to the lyre's tender tones ; or the savage 
Lapithse, and Hylaeus intemperate in wine, and the children of Earth, 
quelled by the hand of Hercules, at the peril caused by whom the 
shining mansion of old Saturn quaked : and you, Maecenas, in prose 
annals will better record the battles of Caesar, and the necks of 
threatening kings led through our streets. 

For myself, 'tis the Muse's will that I record the sweet songs of 
my Lady Licymnia, that I record her lustrous flashing eyes, and her 
heart so true in its deeply mutual love. 

Her it misbeseems not to tread a measure in the dance, nor to 
i vie in the jest, nor playfully to throw her arms around the brilliant 
maidens on the sacred day of Dian's crowded festival. 

Would you choose, for all that rich Achaemenes possessed, or 
fruitful Phrygia's wealth that Mygdon owned, or the Arabians' 
opulent homes, to barter a lock of Licymnia's hair? 

While she bends her neck to meet your fiery kisses, or with a 
gentle cruelty withholds them, which she would rather should be 
snatched than asked for, and would sometimes be the first to snatch 
them. 

HOR. . 



5 o HORACE. [II. 13, 14. 

XIII. 

The poefs imprecations on the planter of a tree which had nearly 
caused his death. Man can never guard against his fyte. The 
charm of lyric song prevails even in the lower world. 

That man, whoever did it at the first, both planted you upon an evil 
day, and reared you with sacrilegious hand, O tree, to be his children's 
bane and the hamlet's reproach. 

I could believe that that man broke his father's neck, and bespat- 
tered his inmost chamber with the blood of a guest by night ; that 
man practised Colchian poisons, and every foul crime that is any- 
where compassed, who in my field set up you, pestilent stock, you, 
destined to fall upon your master's guiltless head. 

What each should shun is never duly guarded against by man from 
hour to hour : the Carthaginian mariner shudders at the Bosphorus, 
and beyond that dreads no hidden fate from another source; the 
soldier fears the arrows and nimble flight of the Parthian, the Par- 
thian the fetters and dungeon of Italy ; but the unforeseen might of 
Death has swept away nations, and still will sweep them away. 

How nearly have we beheld the realms of dusky Proserpine, and 
^Eolus on his judgment-seat, and the far-removed abodes of the pious, 
and Sappho complaining on her ^olian strings of the girls of her 
native land; and you, Alcaeus, in fuller tone sounding with your 
golden quill the hardships of voyage, the hardships of exile, the 
hardships of war ! 

The shades admire either bard giving utterance to words which 
merit a holy silence ; but the crowd with thronging shoulders more 
gladly drink in with their ears the tale of battles and of tyrants 
banished. 

What wonder, since, entranced by those lays, the hundred-headed 
monster droops his sable ears, and the serpents are charmed, entwined 
in the Furies' locks ? 

Nay, both Prometheus and the sire of Pelops are beguiled from 
their labours by the delicious sound ; and Orion cares " not to rouse 
the lion or the timorous lynx. 

XIV. 
Nothing can stay the advance of decay and death, the common doom 
of all on earth j and men pile up wealth, only for another to 
waste it. 
Alas, the fleeting years, my Postumus, my Postumus, the fleeting 
years glide away ; and piety will never bring a check to wrinkles, and 
Old Age's stern advance, and unconquerable Death. 

No, my friend, not if with three hundred bulls, each day that 
passes, you strive to pacify the mind of Pluto whom tears may not 
move ; he who imprisons with his gloomy flood Geryon's triple bulk, 
and Tityos, — the flood, you know, we all must sail across, all we who 
live upon the gifts of earth ; whether it chance that we be kings, or 
needy tillers of the soil. 



II. 15, 16.] THE ODES. 51 

'Twill be all in vain that we live safe from gory War, and breaking 
billows of the hoarse Adrian sea ; in vain that through the Autumn 
times we timorously shield our bodies from the hurtful southern wind. 

Go we must, and view that black Cocytus with its sluggish wandering 
stream, and the accursed children of Danaus, and Sisyphus, son of 
^Eolus, condemned to an endless toil. 

Land, mansion, gentle wife, must all be left ; and of these trees that 
you are rearing, (except the hateful cypresses,) not one will follow you, 
their short-lived lord. 

Your worthier heir will waste the Csecuban, which you have guarded 
with a hundred keys ; and stain the floor with that magnificent wine, 
choicer than any quaffed at pontiffs' feasts. 

XV. 

Horace describes the extravagant luxury prevalent among the rich, 
and praises the si?nple manner of living of the old Roinans. 

Soon will regal piles leave but few acres for the plough ; on all sides 
ponds will be viewed, spreading more widely than the Lucrine lake, 
and the bachelor plane will displace the elm ; then violet-beds, and 
myrtles, and all the profusion of fragrance, will throw a perfume on 
the olive-yards that were fruitful for the former lord ; then with 
its boughs the tangled laurel-grove will shut out the assaults of the 
heat. 

Not so was it ordained by the precepts of Romulus and unshorn 
Cato, and the rule of the men of old. With them the income of a 
subject was small, the public revenue large; no colonnade, marked out 
with long measuring-rods for a subject, caught the gale of the shaded 
North ; and the laws allowed them not to scorn the turf which chance 
supplied, but bade them at the public expense adorn with fresh-hewn 
stone their towns, and the temples of the gods. 

XVI. 

All mankind long for rest, which riches cannot buy. Contentment, 
not wealth, makes genuine happiness. 

For rest he prays the gods who is surprised on the broad ^Egsean, 
when all at once a black cloud hides the moon, and the stars beam 
not clear upon the mariners ; for rest Thrace the furious in war, for 
rest the Medes adorned with the quiver ; for rest, my Grosphus, which 
cannot be bought with gems or purple or gold. 

For it is not treasure, nor the consul's lictor, that clears away 
the mind's unhappy turmoils, and cares which flit around the fretted 
vault. 

He lives on little well, upon whose modest board his father's 
salt-cellar gleams; nor does fear or low passion rob him of his light 
repose. 

Why in a narrow life aim we at many a mark? Why change we 
to lands that are warmed by another sun? What exile from his 
country has fled from himself as well? 

4—2 



S 2 HORACE. [II. 17, 18. 

Marring Care climbs ships with brazen beak, and never drops 
behind a troop of horse ; fleeter than stags, and fleeter than the East 
wind, who drives along the stormy clouds. 

A mind that views with joy its present lot, will shrink from caring 
for what lies beyond, and with an easy smile will soften the bitters of 
life ; nought is there that is blest in every point. 

A swift death carried off renowned Achilles ; a length of years wore 
away Tithonus ; and perhaps to me the hour will extend that which it 
has denied to you. 

Around you a hundred flocks bleat, and cows of Sicily low ; for you 
the mare trained for the chariot raises its neighing, you fleeces clothe, 
twice dipped in the purple dye of Africa : to me the Fate who cannot 
be false has granted a small domain, and the delicate spirit of the 
Grecian Muse, and power to scorn the envious crowd. 

XVII. 
To Maecenas on his recovery from illness. Horace says that the same 
day must of necessity bring death to them both. Besides, their 
horoscopes are wonderfully alike; and they have both been saved 

from extreme peril. 

Why rob me of my life with your complaints? 'Tis neither Heaven's 
pleasure, nor my own, for you, Maecenas, to depart before me, my 
fortunes' chiefest glory and support. 

Ah, if too swift a stroke bear you away, the one half of my soul, 
why do I linger still, the other half, not now so prized, nor a complete 
survivor? That day shall bring the downfall of us both. 

I have sworn no false allegiance : we will go, we will go, whene'er 
you lead the way, prepared in company to take our latest journey. 

For myself, neither fiery Chimsera's breath, nor hundred-handed 
Gyas, should he rise again, shall ever tear me from you ; so mighty 
Justice and the Fates have willed. 

Whether Libra looks upon me, or the terrible Scorpion, the more 
prevailing element of my natal hour, or Capricorn, despot of the 
Western wave, the star of both of us agrees in a marvellous way. 

You Jove's shielding planet, with its opposite radiance, rescued 
from baleful Saturn, and stayed the wings of flying Fate, when the 
crowded people in the theatre thrice clapped their hands with joyful 
noise. 

Myself the tree which fell upon my head had carried away, had not 
Faunus with his right-hand warded off the blow, the guard of men 
beloved by Mercury. 

Forget not to offer victims and a votive shrine ; I will sacrifice a 
humble lamb. 

XVIII. 

The poet, content with his own moderate fortune, inveighs against 

the blindness of avarice: for the same end awaits all men. 

Within my dwelling ivory does not gleam, nor roof of fretted gold ; 

beams from Hymettus rest not upon columns hewn in the uttermost 

parts of Africa ; nor have I, a stranger heir, taken possession of the 



II. I9-] THE ODES. 53 

palace of an Attalus ; nor do client maids of gentle birth spin for me 
textures of Laconian purple : but honour is mine, and a generous vein 
of wit ; and poor though I be, the rich man courts me ; for nought 
beyond do I solicit Heaven, or crave a powerful friend for ampler 
gifts, blessed enough in my one Sabine farm. 

Day displaces day, and new moons hasten onward but to fade. 
You, on the verge of death, contract for blocks of marble to be hewn, 
and, unmindful of the grave, are rearing mansions, and are all eager- 
ness to thrust backward the shores of the sea that roars against 
Baiae ; for not enough does the bound of the mainland enrich you. 

Nay, why you, ever encroaching, pluck up the neighbouring land- 
marks of the field, and leap across your clients' borders in your 
covetousness. Both wife and husband are driven forth, bearing in 
their bosom their ancestral gods and squalid children. 

Yet no palace more surely awaits the wealthy heir than the 
ordained confine of Orcus. Why farther press ? Impartial Earth 
unlocks herself to receive the poor man and the youthful sons of 
kings; nor was the guard of Orcus tempted by gold to bear back 
the crafty Prometheus. 

'Tis he who confines proud Tantalus and Tantalus' line ; he hears, 
when invoked and not invoked to ease the poor man who has fulfilled 
his toils. 

XIX. 

A hymn to Bacchus : his attributes and exploits. 

Bacchus I've seen amid retired rocks, dictating hymns, (posterity 
believe me!) and the Nymphs his pupils, and the ears of the goat- 
footed Satyrs pricked up to listen. 

Evoe ! my heart is thrilled with newly-felt alarm, and wildly exults 
in a breast that is filled with Bacchus. Evoe! forbear, O Liber, 
forbear, thou that art terrible with thy resistless thyrsus ! 

'Tis my privilege to sing of the untiring Thyiades, and the fount 
that flows with wine, and the rivulets with their wealth of milk, and 
to picture the streams of honey that gush from hollow trees. 

'Tis my privilege too to sing of the adornment of thy blessed 
consort, which is placed among the stars, and of the halls of 
Pentheus, dashed down with pitiless wreck, and the destruction of 
Thracian Lycurgus. 

Thou dost sway the courses of rivers, thou dost sway the barbarian 
sea ; thou, dewy with wine upon secluded heights, dost harmlessly 
bind up with a twine of vipers the tresses of the Thracian Bac- 
chanals. 

Thou, when the Giants' sacrilegious troop strove up the steep of 
heaven to scale the kingdoms of thy sire, didst hurl back Rhcetus 
with thy lion-claws and terrific fangs : 

And yet, since reputed to be fitter for dance and jest and sport, 
thou wast said to be little suited for the fight : but thou wast the soul 
1 of peace and of war as well. 

Thee, decked with thy golden horn, Cerberus saw and harmed 



54 HORACE. [II. 20. 

not ; while he gently brushed thee with his tail, and fondled, as 
thou didst depart, thy feet and legs with his triple tongue. 

XX. 

The poet predicts his metamorphosis and immortality. 

On no common or puny wing shall I be borne through the lucid 
air, a bard of double shape, and no more shall I sojourn upon earth, 
and, superior to envy, I shall forsake the cities of men. 

Never shall I, the offspring of poor parents, never shall I, whom 
you call to be your friend, perish, my beloved Maecenas, or be 
confined by the Stygian flood. 

Even now rough folds of skin are settling on my legs, and I am 
changing into a white bird above, and downy feathers are springing 
along my fingers and shoulders. 

Soon shall I, a melodious bird, more fleet than Icarus, child of 
Daedalus, visit the coasts of the roaring Bosphorus, and the 
Gaetulian Syrtes, and the Hyperborean plains. 

Me the Colcbian, and the Dacian who would fain disguise his 
dread of the Marsian cohort, and the remote Geloni, will study, 
me the Iberian scholar will learn, and he who drinks the Rhone. 

Far from my unreal funeral be dirges, and unsightly mournings 
and lamentations ; hush the wail, and omit the superfluous honours 
of the grave. 



BOOK III. 



I. 



Philosophy^ is a religious mystery which the vulgar cannot under- 
stand. * The worthlessness of riches and rank. The praise of 
contentment. Care cannot be banished by change of scene. 

I HATE the uninitiated crowd, and drive them from me. Preserve 
a holy silence ! I, the priest of the Muses, sing to maidens and 
boys strains not heard before. 

The sway of awful kings is over their own flocks ; over kings them- 
selves is» the sway of Jove, made famous by his conquest of the 
Giants, Jove, who shakes the universe with his nod. 

It may be that one man more widely than another arranges in 
furrows the trees of his vineyard ; that one descends into the Plain, 
a candidate of nobler birth, that one competes as being superior in 
character and reputation, that another possesses a larger throng of 
clients : Necessity by impartial law draws the lot of the exalted and 
the humblest ; the capacious urn is shaking every name. 

For him, above whose impious neck hangs a drawn sword, 
Sicilian banquets will not yield the exquisiteness of their delicious 
taste ; the melodies of birds and of the lyre will not bring back his 
sleep. The gentle sleep of rustic men disdains not lowly homes 
and shaded bank, disdains not Tempe which the Zephyrs fan. 

Him who requires what is sufficient neither the tumultuous sea 
makes anxious, nor the fierce swoop of setting Arcturus, or the 
rising Kid, nor vineyards lashed by hail, and the farm that belies 
his hopes, while the tree blames now the showers, now the stars that 
parch the fields, now the inclement winters. 

The fish feel the waters straitened by the piles that are thrown 
into the deep; hither contractors in crowds, attended by their 
servants, and the lord who disdains the mainland, pour down their 
heaps of rubble. But Fear and the threatenings of the Conscience 
climb to the same height as the lord ; and black Care quits not 
the brazen trireme, and sits behind the horseman. 

But if neither Phrygian marble, nor the wearing of purple robes 
more brilliant than a star, soothe to rest the troubled mind, nor do 
the vine of Falerii and the nard of the land of Achsemenes, why 
should I pile up a stately hall, with gates which Envy haunts, and 
built in a novel style? Why should I exchange my Sabine dell for 
wealth more burdensome? 



5 6 HORACE. [III. 2, 3. 

II. 

Horace extols the virtue of endurance and valour in fighting for 
our country ', of integrity in politics, and of religious honour. 

Let the strong youth thoroughly learn by sharp warfare cheerfully 
to endure pinching penury, and let him, a horseman of formidable 
lance, trouble the savage Parthians, and pass his life beneath the sky 
and in perilous times. At their view of him from the enemy's battle- 
ments, the consort of the warring monarch, and the ripe maiden, 
would sigh, alas! lest the royal lover, unversed in battle-fields, 
provoke the lion terrible to rouse, whom bloodthirsty anger speeds 
through the midst of the carnage. 

To die for fatherland is sweet and seemly: death likewise over- 
takes the man who flees, nor spares the loins and coward back of 
the un warlike youth. 

Virtue, who knows not the disgrace of defeat, gleams with unsullied 
honours ; and does not take or lay aside the axes according to the 
whim of the popular breeze. Virtue, unfolding heaven to those who 
deserve not to die, explores the way by a path denied to others ; 
and spurns with soaring wing the vulgar rabbles and the misty 
earth. 

For faithful silence too there is a sure reward : I will forbid him 
who has divulged the mystery of secret Ceres to be beneath the 
same roof, or with me to unmoor the frail pinnace : often the 
Father of the sky, when slighted, is wont to blend the faultless with 
the sinful ; seldom does Punishment, though lame of foot, quit the 
criminal who goes before. 

III. 

The merit of integrity and resolution: the examples of Pollux, 
Hercules, and Romulus. Juno's speech to the gods on the desti- 
nies of Rome. Troy may not be rebuilt. 

The man that is upright and fixed in his design, not the passion of 
citizens commanding wrongful acts, not the glance of the imperious 
tyrant, shake from his firm resolve; nor Auster, restless Adda's 
stormy lord, nor the mighty hand of Jove when he wields the 
thunderbolt : if the shattered sphere fall down, the wreck will strike 
him undismayed. 

'Twas by this course that Pollux and roving Hercules with many 
an effort gained the fiery heights ; among them Augustus, reclining 
at the feast, drinks the nectar with rosy lip. ? Twas by this thou 
didst earn the prize, O father Bacchus, when thy tigers bore thee 
to the sky, drawing the yoke with neck untamed; 'twas by this 
Quirinus escaped Acheron, caught away by the steeds of Mars; 
when Juno had discoursed in words that were pleasing to the gods 
in council. 

"Ilium, Ilium, a predestined and impure judge and a foreign 
woman have o'erthrown into the dust, since that day when Laomedon 



III. 4-] THE ODES. 57 

defrauded the gods of their covenanted reward, a city surrendered 
to me and chaste Minerva, together with its people and guileful ■ 
chief. Now neither does her shameful guest have charms for the 
Spartan adulteress, nor does Priam's perjured house by the aid of 
Hector's might beat back the gallant Achaeans; and the war that 
was prolonged by our feuds has settled into peace. 

"Straightway I will resign to Mars my deep wrath and the 
grandson I hated, whom the Trojan priestess bore. Him I will 
allow to enter the abodes of light, to quaff the juices of nectar, and 
to be enrolled among the tranquil ranks of the gods. 

"Provided that a breadth of sea rage betwixt Ilium and Rome, 
let the exiles in any quarter reign in blessedness ; provided that 
upon the tomb of Priam and Paris cattle trample, and wild beasts 
undisturbed conceal their whelps, let the Capitol stand in splendour, 
and valiant Rome be able to impose laws on the vanquished Medes. 
Dreadful far and wide, let her spread her name to the remotest 
shores, where the central flood sunders Europe from the African, 
where swelling Nile waters the cornfields ; while she shows her 
courage more by scorning undiscovered gold, (then better placed 
when earth conceals it still,) than by forcing it to serve for the uses 
of men, with a hand that plunders every sacred thing. Whatever 
boundary is set to be the barrier of the world, it she shall reach 
with her hosts, exulting to visit the region where the fires fiercely 
revel, the region where revel the mists and rainy dews. 

"But with this condition I declare the fates of the warlike Quirites, 
that they do not, through excessive affection, and overmuch trust 
in their power, essay to build again the dwellings of their ancestral 
Troy. The fortune of Troy, springing again to life under a woeful 
omen, shall be repeated with grisly carnage, while I, the consort and 
sister of Jove, lead on the conquering battalions. If thrice the wall 
of brass should rise again by the creation of Phcebus, thrice it 
should be hewn down and destroyed by my Argives; thrice the 
captive wife should mourn her husband and her sons." 

This subject suits not with the playful lyre: whither art thou 
speeding, O my Muse? Cease to repeat in thy presumption the 
discourses of gods, and to enfeeble a mighty theme by puny strains. 

IV. 

The invocation of Calliope. A miracle in his childhood proved 
that Horace was protected by the Muses, and they have guarded 
him since, and will do so, wherever he goes. They are also the 
friends of Ccesar, and prompt him to clemency and kindness. 
The evils of violence and arroga7it presumption, on the other 
hand, are exemplified by the attempts of the Tifans a?id Giants, 
of Gyas, Orion, and others. ■ 

Descend from heaven, queen Calliope, and utter, I pray thee, on 
the flute a lengthened melody, or, if thou choosest now, with ringing 
voice, or the chords and lyre of Phcebus. 



58 HORACE. [Hi. 4 . 

Do ye hear? Or does a charming frenzy beguile me? I seem to 
hear and roam 'mid hallowed groves, through which delicious streams 
and breezes steal. 

Myself on Apulian Vultur, beyond the threshold of my nurse 
Apulia, when wearied out with play and overcome with sleep, the 
ring-doves of romance covered with fresh leaves ; which would be 
a miracle to all, whosoever inhabit high Acherontia's nest and 
Bantia's glades and low Forentum's wealthy field ; how I slept with 
body safe from deadly vipers and from bears, how I was over- 
spread with sacred laurel and collected myrtle, a daring infant by the 
grace of Heaven. 

Your own, O Muses, still your own, am I lifted to the Sabine 
steeps, or if cool Praeneste chance to attract me, or the slope of 
Tibur, or limpid Baise. Because a friend to your springs and choirs, 
the rout of the army at Philippi destroyed me not, the accursed 
tree destroyed me not, nor Palinurus on the Sicilian flood. 

Whenever ye will be with me, I, a mariner, will cheerfully explore 
the raving Bosphorus, and the burning sands of the Assyrian shore, 
a traveller by land ; I will visit the Britons cruel to strangers, and 
the Concan who delights in horses' blood ; I will visit the quivered 
Geloni and the Scythian river, unharmed. 

Ye in Pierian grot refresh exalted Caesar, so soon as he has 
assigned to the towns his weary cohorts, and seeks to end his toils. 

Ye both give gentle counsel, gracious Powers, and, when 'tis given, 
rejoice. We know how he with swooping thunderbolt quelled the 
impious Titans and their monstrous crew; he who governs the 
ponderous earth, who governs the breezy sea, and the cities of men, 
and the grisly realms, and rules the gods and mortal throngs with 
sole impartial sway. 

Deep dread had those o'erweening youths, bristling with their 
forest of arms, struck into the mind of Jove, and so had the brothers 
who strove to pile up Pelion on dusk Olympus. But what could 
Typhosus and stout Mimas do, or what Porphyrion with his threaten- 
ing mien, what could Rhcetus do, and Enceladus, a hurler bold of 
trees torn from the roots, as they rushed against the ringing aegis of 
Pallas? In one place stood Vulcan, eager for the fray, in another 
matron Juno, and he who will never put down his bow from off his 
shoulders, who in Castalia's crystal dew bathes his flowing locks, who 
Lycia's thickets haunts, and his native wood, Apollo of Delos and of 
Patara. 

Force void of reason by its own bulk falls down : force regulated 
even the gods advance to greater might ; they likewise hate the power, 
which in its heart is bent on every crime. 

Hundred-handed Gyas is a witness to the truth of my maxims, and 
Orion, the well-known assailer of spotless Diana, vanquished by 
her maiden arrow. Earth grieves to be piled upon her monstrous 
brood, and mourns her children driven by the thunderbolt to lurid 
Orcus ; and the devouring flame has never gnawed through ^Etna 
piled above, nor, the vulture, set to be the warder over wickedness, 



III. 5.] THE ODES. 



59 



quitted the liver of incontinent Tityos ; three hundred fetters keep 
down the lustful Pirithous. 

V. 
This ode was probably written before the surrender by the Parthian s, 
(b. c. 23) of the surviving prisoners who had belonged to the army 
of Crassus. If so, it was the emperor's design to recover these 
priso7iers which recalled to Ho?'ace the story of Regulus. His 
speech to the senate, and voluntary return to Carthage. 

When Jove is thundering in the sky, we are wont to believe that he 
is monarch there : Augustus will be accounted a visible deity, when the 
Britons are united to the empire, and the formidable Parthians. 

Has the soldier of Crassus passed his days a degraded husband 
with a barbarian wife, and beneath a Median king have Marsians 
and Apulians grown old in the armour of fathers-in-law that were 
their foes, (Oh, shame on the Senate and our perverted principles !) 
forgetful of the sacred shields, and of his name, and of the toga, and 
of undying Vesta, while Jove is yet standing safe, and the city of 
Rome ? 

The far-seeing mind of Regulus had guarded against this, when he 
opposed the shameful terms, and proved that by the precedent de- 
struction would be drawn down upon the coming age, if the captive 
men did not perish unpitied. 

"I have seen," he said, "our standards fastened to Carthaginian 
shrines, and weapons wrung from our soldiers without bloodshed; 
I have seen the arms of citizens bound behind them on a free back, 
and the gates not shut, and fields being tilled which had been laid 
waste by our warriors. 

"The soldier redeemed with gold will come back more brave, no 
doubt. To disgrace you are adding loss : neither does wool, when 
dressed with dye, regain the hues that are gone, nor does true valour, 
when once it has fallen from the heart, care to be restored in the 
degraded. If the hind fights, when disentangled from the closely- 
woven toils, that man will be valiant, who has yielded himself to the 
faith of treacherous foes, and he will crush the Carthaginians in a second 
campaign, who like a dastard has felt the thongs upon his arms 
drawn behind his back, and has feared death ! He, since he knew 
not how to win his life, has mingled peace with war. Oh, ignominy ! 
O mighty Carthage, exalted higher by Italy's shameful ruins !" 

He is said to have put away from him, as one whose rights were 
lost, the lips of his chaste wife, and his little children, and to have 
sternly fixed upon the ground his manly face ; until by his influence 
he made resolute the wavering senators with counsel given at no 
other time, and amid his sorrowing friends hastened away, an 
illustrious exile. 

And still he knew what the barbarian tormentor was preparing for 
him ; yet he put aside his kinsmen who fain would stop him, and the 
people who sought to delay his return, just as if he were leaving his 
clients' tedious business when a suit had been decided, speeding to 
the fields of Venafrum, or to Tarentum the Spartan town. 



6o HORACE. [III. 6, 7. 



VI. 

To the Romans. Regard for the national religion should be restored, 
for neglect of it has brought us many misfortunes. The decay of 
private morality has been the source of public licentiousness. The 
simple and hardy life of the old Romans was the cause of their 
great victories. Now, each successive generation is worse than the 
one before it. 

O Roman, you, though guiltless, will expiate the offences of your 
forefathers, until you have repaired the temples and falling shrines of 
the gods, and the statues sullied with blackening smoke. 

'Tis because you own yourself lower than the gods, that you rule 
the world. From them is every beginning, to them ascribe every 
ending. Many a misfortune have the gods, when slighted, imposed 
upon afflicted Hesperia. Twice already have Monaeses and the host 
of Pacorus crushed our unblest assaults, and gaily smile to have 
added the booty to their collars of little price. Almost have the 
Dacian and ./Ethiopian destroyed the City when absorbed in civil 
feuds ; the latter striking terror by his fleet, the former more skilled 
in shooting arrows. 

Our times prolific in sin have first polluted marriage, and offspring, 
and homes ; from this fountain sprung the calamity, which has flowed 
upon the country and the people. 

The ripened virgin makes it her delight to be taught Ionian move- 
ments, and is fashioned by the modes of art ; even now too from her 
inmost soul she designs unhallowed loves. Next, she seeks for 
younger paramours amid her husband's banquet, and does not select 
one, upon whom she is to bestow with stealthy haste forbidden joys, 
when the lights have been removed ; but she rises, when summoned, 
in the presence of her husband and not without his knowledge, 
whether the factor calls her, or the captain of a Spanish ship, the 
munificent purchaser of her dishonour. 

Not sprung from parents such as these were the youths who dyed 
the sea with Carthaginian blood, and struck down Pyrrhus and great 
Antiochus and accursed Hannibal ; but the manly offspring of rustic 
warriors, trained to turn up the clods with Sabine hoes, and to carry 
logs hewn according to the will of an austere mother, when the sun 
was changing the shadows of the hills, and taking off the yoke from 
the weary oxen, as he brought with parting car the welcome hour. 

What is there wasting Time does not impair? The age of our 
parents, worse than our grandsires, has borne us yet more wicked, who 
in our turn are destined to beget a progeny more sinful still. 

VII. 

Horace assures Asterie of the safe return of her lover Gyges, and of 

his constancy to her, in spite of all te?nptations. He hints that 

there is too much fear, that Asterie herself will prove unfaithful. 

Why weep for Gyges, O Asterie, whom in the opening spring the fair 

Zephyrs will restore to you, enriched with Thynian merchandise, a 



TIL 8.] THE ODES. 61 

youth of faithful constancy? He by the South winds driven to Oricum, 
after the season of the Goat's mad stars, sleepless, with many a tear, 
passes the cold nights. 

But the messenger of his anxious hostess, saying that Chloe sighs 
for him and is miserably burning for your lover, craftily tempts him 
in a thousand ways. He repeats how the treacherous woman, by 
false accusations, induced the credulous Prcetus to contrive a speedy 
death for too chaste Bellerophon. He tells of Peleus almost con- 
signed to Tartarus, while he flees in his continence from Magnessian 
Hippolyte ; and guilefully touches upon stories which prompt men to 
sin. In vain ! for deafer than the waves of the Icarian sea, he hears 
the words with heart unshaken still. 

But be you careful, lest your neighbour Enipeus please you more 
than is right; albeit no other skilled to rule the steed is so dis- 
tinguished as he on the turf of the Plain of Mars, and not one so 
swiftly as he swims down the channel of the Tuscan stream. 

At nightfall shut your house, and look not down into the streets at 
the note of the plaintive fife ; and though he often call you cruel, still 
obdurate remain. 

VIII. 

Horace invites Mcecenas to dinner on the first of March, the Feast of 
the Matrons. He says that he will always keep this day as a 
holiday, because it is the anniversary of his escape from a sudden 
death. Besides, the prosperous state of the empire is a further 
reason for festivity. 

You wonder what I, a bachelor, am doing on the Kalends of March, 
what mean the flowers, and the box full of incense, and the charcoal 
placed upon the living turf, you that are learned in the literature of 
either tongue. 

I had vowed to Liber a pleasant feast and a white he-goat, when 
almost done to death by the blow of the falling tree. This day of 
festival, as the year comes round, shall remove the pitch-bound cork 
from a wine-jar which was trained to drink the smoke in Tullus' 
consulate. 

Take, Mcecenas, a hundred cups in honour of your friend's de- 
liverance, and prolong till break of day the wakeful lamps; let all 
clamour and passion be far away. 

Dismiss your politic cai*es for the City's weal ; the host of Dacian 
Cotiso has fallen; the Mede, a foe to himself, is distracted by a 
woeful warfare ; our ancient enemy of the Spanish coast, the Canta- 
brian, is our slave, subdued by a chain at last imposed; now the 
Scythians, with bow unstrung, are resolving to withdraw from the 
plains. 

Carelessly, as a man not in place, refrain from guarding overmuch 
that the people in no way suffer ; snatch joyfully the gifts of the pre- 
sent hour, and abandon serious thoughts. 



62 HORACE. [III. 9— u. 

IX. 

A dialogue between Horace and Lydia. The lovers' reconciliation. 

H So long as I was dear to you, and no more favoured youth 
was wont to throw his arms about your spotless neck, I throve more 
blessed than the Persians' king. 

L. So long as you burned for no one more than me, and Lydia 
was not valued less than Chloe, I, Lydia, of high renown, throve 
more illustrious than Rome's Ilia. 

H 'Tis Thracian Chloe that now governs me, learned in measures 
sweet, and skilled to play the lyre ; for whom I would not fear to die, 
if Fate would spare that life surviving me. 

L. 'Tis Calais, son of Ornytus of Thurium, who is consuming me 
with mutual torch ; for whom I would endure twice to die, if Fate 
would spare the boy surviving me. 

H What if our ancient love return, and clasp our parted serve: 
with yoke of brass? If Chloe with the auburn hair is spurned, an 
the door ope to Lydia scorned before ? 

L. Albeit he is fairer than a star, you more light than cork, and 
more passionate than the frantic Adrian sea, with you I'd love to live, 
with you I'd gladly die ! 

X. 

Horace warns Lyce that he cannot put up with her unkindnessfo, 

ever. 

Though you drank of the far distant Tanais, Lyce, wedded to a 
savage husband, still you would grieve to expose me, stretched before 
your unkind portals, to the North-winds of the land. 

Hear you how loudly the door, how loudly the grove planted within 
your fair abode groans beneath the blast, and how Jove with his clear 
influence turns to ice the fallen snows? 

Renounce the pride which Venus hates ; lest as the wheel speed: 
round, the rope run back ; 'twas not to be a Penelope unyielding to 
suitors that your Etruscan sire begot you. 

Oh, albeit neither gifts nor prayers, nor lovers' paleness with its 
violet hue, nor your husband smitten with a Macedonian mistress, 
sway your mind, yet spare your suppliants, though not more pliant 
than the unbending oak, and not gentler in heart than Moorish snakes. 
This body of mine will not for ever endure your threshold or the 
water of the sky. 

XI. 
To Mercury. Horace begs the god to teach him such melody as will 
overcome the unkindness of Lyde. Music has power even over 
hell itself as is proved by the story of Orpheus. The ode concludes 
with the tale of the daughters of Danaus, and their doom in the 
lower world. 

O Mercury, (for by thy teaching it was that apt Amphion moved 
the stones with, his song,) and thou,. O Shell, skilled to utter ringing 



e 
te 



JIT. 12.] THE ODES. 63 

music from the seven strings, not vocal once, nor pleasing, now a 
friend to rich men's tables and the temples too, speak measures to 
which Lyd& will lend her obdurate ears. For she, like a filly three 
years old upon the spacious plains, sports boundingly, and shrinks 
from being touched, unversed in marriage, and as yet not ripe for a 
playful husband. 

Thou hast power to draw tigers and forests to attend thee, and to 
stay the rapid streams ; to thy fascination Cerberus yielded, the mon- 
strous doorkeeper of the palace, albeit a hundred snakes fence round 
his fury-like head, and noisome breath and foul gore flow from his 
three-tongued mouth. Nay, even Ixion and Tityos smiled with 
unwilling countenance ; the vessel for a time stood dry, while with a 
welcome strain thou dost soothe the daughters of Danaus. 

Let Lyde hear of the maidens' crime and well-known punishment, 
and of the jar void of water which runs through at the very bottom, 
and the late-inflicted doom which awaits offences even beneath 
Orcus. In their impiety, (for what greater sin could they have had 
the heart to do ?) in their impiety they had the heart to destroy their 
bridegrooms with the cruel steel ! 

One out of many, worthy of the marriage torch, was nobly false 
towards her perjured sire, and a maid illustrious to all time ; who to 
her youthful husband said, "Arise, arise, lest a long sleep be given 
you from whence you fear it not ; elude your father-in-law and my 
wicked sisters, who, like lionesses that have lighted upon calves, 
mangle them one by one, alas! I, gentler than they, will neither 
strike you, nor keep you shut within the bars. Myself let my father 
load with cruel chains, because in pity I have spared my hapless 
husband ; or myself let him banish in his fleet to the uttermost plains 
of Numidia! Go, whither your feet and the breezes speed you, while 
night and Venus are propitious ; go with a happy omen, and engrave 
upon my tomb a lament in memory of me." 

XII. 

Joyless is the life of girls like Neobule, who are ever under the eye of 
a strict guardian. Neobule, charmed by the accoinplishments of 
Hebrus, forgets her tedious work. 

'Tis the lot of hapless girls neither to give free play to love nor 
wash away their woes with pleasant wine, or to faint through dread 
of the lashes of an uncle's tongue. 

From you Cytherea's winged boy steals your wool-basket ; from you, 
Neobule, the bright beauty of Hebrus of Lipara steals your web and 
your diligence in the toilsome craft ; whene'er he chance in Tiber's 
waves to bathe his anointed shoulders, he, a better horseman than 
Bellerophon himself, and never conquered through slackness of fist or 
foot ; skilled too to shoot the stags as they flee o'er the open plain 
; when the herd is roused, and quick to intercept the boar who makes 
his lair in the depth of the thicket. 



6 4 HORACE. [III. 13— 15. 






XIII. 
To the fountain of Bandusia. 

Spring of Bandusia, more clear than glass, worthy of pleasant wine 
and flowers withal, to-morrow shalt thou be presented with a kid, 
whose brow that heaves with budding horns designs both love and 
battles. In vain! for to honour thee he shall with crimson blood 
dye thy cold streams, he, the offspring of the playful herd. 

The blazing dog-star's scorching season knows not what it is to 
light on thee ; thou to oxen wearied with the ploughshare, and to the 
wandering herd, dost afford a delicious coolness. 

Thou also shalt become one of the ennobled fountains, when I sing 
of the ilex-tree set upon the hollow crags, from whence thy babbling 
brooks dance down. 

XIV.' 

Horace prepares to celebrate as a holiday the return of Augustus 
from Spain about the beginning of the year 24 e.g. 

O people, Caesar who but lately was said to have sought in the 
manner of Hercules to win the laurel whose price is death, revisits 
his household gods, a conqueror from the Spanish strand. 

Let the matron who rejoices in her peerless lord go forth to sacrifice 
with proper rites; and the sister of the illustrious chief, and the 
mothers of our maidens and of the youths lately delivered from peril, 
adorned with suppliant wreath. Ye, O young men, and girls who 
have lately entered upon wedlock, refrain from ill-omened words. 

This day, for me a genuine holiday, shall banish gloomy cares ; I 
will fear neither rebellion, nor death by violence of the foe, while 
Caesar rules the world. 

Go, search for perfume, boy, and garlands, and a cask which 
recollects the Marsian war, if a crock has any way been able to elude 
the roving Spartacus. And bid melodious Neaera haste to bind up in 
a knot her tresses sweet with myrrh ; if delay is caused by the odious 
doorkeeper, come away. 

Whitening hair makes mild those spirits which once were eager for 
brawls and headstrong quarrel ; I would not have endured this in the 
glow of youth, in Plancus' consulate. 

XV. 

The poet taunts Chloris with her attempts to appear young, and with 
her frivolous life, while she is really an old woman. The tone of 
this ode is similar to that of the thirteenth of the fourth book. 

Wife of penniless Ibycus, at last set a limit to your viciousness, and 
to your notorious tasks : since quite near to a seasonable death, cease 
to play among the maidens, and to throw a cloud upon the brilliant 
stars. 

If aught becomes Pholoe well enough, it does not likewise become 
you, Chloris ; your daughter more properly storms the young men's 



III. 1 6, 17.] THE ODES. 6 S 

homes, like a Thyiad when roused by the beat of the timbrel. She 
by love for Nothus is constrained to sport like a playful kid : to you, 
an old creature, wool shorn near famed Luceria is becoming ; not 
lutes, nor the rose's crimson flower, nor casks drunk down to the 
lees. 

XVI. 

The explanation of the fable ofDanae: the omnipotence of money; the 
superior blessedness of moderatio?i. Contentment is genuine wealth. 

Immured Danae a wall of brass and massive doors and the grim 
watching of wakeful dogs had fenced in well enough from nightly 
lovers, if at Acrisius, the anxious keeper of the secluded maid, 
Jupiter and Venus had not laughed ; for they knew that the way 
would be safe and open to the god when transformed into a bribe. 

Gold loves to travel through the midst of guards, and to' burst 
through rocks with greater might than the shock of the thunderbolt ; 
down fell the house of the Argive augur, plunged deep in ruin, 
through the love of gain; the man of Macedon clove the gates of 
cities and undermined his royal rivals by presents ; presents ensnare 
rough navy captains. 

Care follows money as it grows, and so does the hunger for riches 
greater still. With reason have I shrunk from raising aloft a crest 
conspicuous far and wide, O Maecenas, glory of the knights. 

The more that each man has denied himself, the more he will 
receive from Heaven: naked I haste to the camp of those who desire 
nought, and am eager to leave as a deserter the side of the wealthy, 
the grander lord of a despised estate, than if whate'er the stout 
Apuiian ploughs I were said to hide away in my granaries, amid 
great riches unenriched myself. 

A stream of clear water, and a wood of a few acres, and the un- 
failing promise of my cornfield, in blessedness of lot surpass (though 
he knows it not,) him who is splendid in the sway of fruitful Africa. 
Although for me neither Calabrian bees bring honey, nor wine is 
mellowing in Laestrygonian jar, nor goodly fleeces grow on Gallic 
pastures, yet vexing penury is far away, and if I wished for more, you 
would not refuse to give it me. 

By narrowing my desire I shall better extend my tiny revenues, 
than if with the plains of Mygdonia I were to unite the realm of 
Alyattes. They who crave many gifts have many wants : 'tis well for 
him upon whom God with sparing hand has bestowed that which is 
sufficient. 

XVII. 

Horace advises his friend of noble descent, L. JElius Lamia, to 
beguile by festivity the tempestuous weather which is imminent. 

-dSlius, nobly sprung from ancient Lamus, since they tell that from 
him both all the elder Lamias drew their name, and the whole 
race of their descendants along the recording annals ; you from 

HOR. 5 



66 HORACE. [III. 1 8, 19. 

that founder trace your origin, who is said to have been the first 
who possessed the walls of Formias, and Liris drifting on Marica's 
shores, a monarch of extended sway: — to-morrow a storm driven 
downward by the East wind will strew the grove with many a leaf, 
and the strand with worthless seaweed, unless the aged crow, the 
presager of rain, deceive me. While you may, pile up the seasoned 
wood ; to-morrow you will soothe your Genius with wine and 
pig two months old, together with your household released from 
toils. 

XVIII. 

Hymn to F annus on his feast-day, the fifth of December. 

O Faunus, wooer of the flying Nymphs, over my borders and my 
sunny fields gently mayest thou tread, and depart propitious to 
my little nurslings ; if falls a tender kid in the fulness of the year, 
and the bowl that is the partner of Venus lacks not wine in plenty ; 
if the ancient altar smokes with a wealth of incense. 

All the flock sports upon the grassy plain, when December's 
Nones come round for thee; the hamlet making holiday takes its 
ease in the meadows, together with the reposing steer : the wolf is 
wandering 'mid the fearless lambs ; the forest showers its wild leaves 
down for thee ; the ditcher rejoices thrice with his foot to beat the 
hateful ground. 

XIX. 

Horace invites Telephus to give up for a time his historical re- 
searches •, and join him at a banquet in honour of Murena. 

How far Codrus, who feared not to die for his country, is removed 
from Inachus, you discourse, and of the line of ,/Eacus, and of the 
wars that were waged beneath hallowed Ilium; as to the price at 
which we can purchase a cask of Chian, who with fire will temper the 
water's chill, who is to afford a house, and at what hour I shall be 
freed from a Pelignian coldness, you are dumb. 

Boy, give with speed a cup in honour of the New Moon, give one 
in honour of Midnight, give one in honour of the augur Murena ; with 
three or nine fair cups our goblets are mixed. The ecstatic bard, 
who loves the Muses of unequal number, will thrice three cups 
demand; to venture on more than three the Grace that shrinks 
from quarrels forbids, who clasps her naked sisters. 

'Tis my joy to play the madman! why stay the blasts of the 
Berecynthian pipe? Why silent hangs the flute and lyre withal? 
Niggard hands I hate! Scatter the roses! Let envious Lycus 
hear the frantic din, and our neighbour not well-matched with 
Lycus old. 

You, all glossy with your clustering hair, you like the brilliant 
Hesper, Telephus, Rhode is wooing, she who fits your bloom; 
myself a wasting love consumes for Glycera my charmer. 



III. 20-22.] THE ODES. 67 

XX. 

To Pyrrhus. 

See you not, Pyrrhus, at how great a risk you would bear away 
the whelps of the Gaetulian lioness? Full soon will you flee the 
fierceness of the fray, a spiritless ravisher ; when she, through the 
companies of youths that would thwart her, shall make her way to 
claim the peerless Nearchus; a mighty conflict, whether the greater 
booty shall pass to you or her. 

Meantime, while you draw forth your rapid shafts, while she whets 
her formidable teeth, the umpire of the fight is said to have placed 
the palm beneath his naked foot, and to fan with the gentle breeze 
his shoulder overrun with fragrant tresses, like either Nireus was, 
or he who was caught away from Ida, the hill of waters. 

XXI. 

To a wine-jar. Horace, preparing to entertain his friend the orator 
M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, sings of the manifold virtues of 
wine. 

Born with myself in Manlius' cousulate, whether complaints you 
bring, or jokes, or brawls and fits of frantic love, or gentle sleep, 
my gracious jar; in whatever quality it be that you store your 
exquisite Massic, you that deserve to be moved from your place on a 
happy day, come down at the bidding of Corvinus, to unseal your 
well-ripened vintage. 

He, though steeped in the Socratic dialogues, is not so austere 
that he will be indifferent to you ; 'tis told that even the virtue of 
antique Cato often gathered warmth from wine. 

You to a temperament at other times stern apply an engine of 
gentle force; you with the blithe juice of the liberal god disclose the 
business of the wise, and their deep designs ; you bring back hope 
and strength to troubled minds, and give the poor man horns of 
might ; for he dreads not, after he has felt your influence, the angry 
crests of kings, or warriors' arms. 

You Liber shall prolong, and Venus too, if she come to us with 
smiles, and the Graces, ever loth to loose their bond, and the 
living lamps, until returning Phoebus chase away the stars. 

XXII. 

This ode appears to be an inscription for a tablet to be placed on a 
pine consecrated to Diana. 

O Virgin, guardian of the hills and groves, who, when thrice invoked, 
dost hear the girls that labour in the travail of birth, and dost rescue 
them from death, goddess of threefold shape ; o'erlooking my cottage 
let thy pine-tree stand, for me with joy on each completed year to 
present it with the blood of a boar that as yet but meditates his 
side-long thrust. 



68 HORACE. [III. 23, 24. 

XXIII. 
To Phidyle. An i?inocent heart is the most acceptable sacrifice. 

If it shall prove that you have raised to Heaven your upturned palms 
at each birth of the Moon, my rustic Phidyle, and that with incense 
and this year's corn and a greedy sow you have appeased your house- 
hold gods, neither will your prolific vine feel the destroying Sirocco, 
nor your harvest the barrenness of blight, or your pleasant nurslings 
the deadly season in the fruit-time of the year. 

For the doomed creature that is feeding on snowy Algidus amid 
the oaks and ilex-trees, or growing up on Alba's lawns, will be a 
victim to stain with the blood of its neck the pontiffs' axes; you 
are in no way bounden to solicit the gods with the slaughter of 
many a ewe, if you wreathe their images with rosemary and brittle 
myrtle-sprigs. 

If clear from guilt your hand is wont to touch the altar, it softens 
the displeasure of the Penates with holy meal and crackling salt, 
and would not be more persuasive with a costly victim. 

XXIV. 

Boundless riches cannot banish fear or avert death. A simple life 
like that of the Scythians is the healthiest and best. Stringent 
laws are needed to curb the present luxury and licentiousness, 
which spring fro?n our excessive opulence. The training of our 
young has become frivolous and effeminate, and like that of the 
degenerate Greeks. The desire for wealth is never satisfied. 

Although, possessed of greater wealth than the untouched treasuries 
of the Arabs and opulent India, you were to overspread with your 
piles of rubble all the Etruscan and Apulian sea, still, since fell 
Necessity fixes on the loftiest tops her spikes of adamant, you will 
not loose your mind from fear, nor your head from the snares of 
death. 

Better live the Scythians of the plain, whose wains are wont to 
draw their roving homes, and the austere Getae, for whom the acres 
unallotted bear fruit and corn that is free to every one, and tillage 
lasting longer than a year is not practised, and a successor, taking 
his turn on the same condition, relieves him that has fulfilled his 
toil. There the guileless matron refrains from harming her step- 
children that are without a mother, nor does the downed wife 
command her lord, nor does she trust a sleek adulterer. There 
parents' virtue is a mighty dowry, and chastity, which never breaks 
its compact and shrinks from another man ; and frailty they hold a 
crime, or else the price is death. 

Oh, whoso shall resolve to put away our impious slaughters and 
civil frenzy, if he shall seek to have his name inscribed at the foot 
of his statues as Father of Cities, let. him dare to curb our wild 
licentiousness, sure to win fame from posterity ; inasmuch as • (alas, 
how foul a sin !) we in our envy hate virtue while she still lives with 
us, miss her when removed from our eyes. 



III. 25, 26.] THE ODES. 69 

What do sorrowful lamentations avail, if offence is not cut down 
by punishment? What without morals do idle laws avail, if neither 
that quarter of the world which burning heats enclose, nor the side 
that is close by the North- wind, and the snows grown hard upon the 
ground, drive away the merchant, and cunning mariners quell the 
savage deep ; if poverty, that deep disgrace, bids us do and suffer 
anything, and forsakes the path of Virtue's steep ascent? Let us 
either into the Capitol, whither the applause invites us, and the 
throng of them that support us, or let us into the nearest sea send 
the gems and pearls and vile gold, the substance of our chiefest ill, 
if we truly repent of our crimes. 

We must extirpate the principles of vicious covetousness, and 
mould with rougher training the minds that are now too soft. 
The free-born boy, all unpractised, knows not how to keep his 
seat on horseback, and is afraid to hunt, being more skilled to play, 
either with the Greek hoop, if you desire him, or, if you prefer it, 
at gaming which the laws forbid; while the father's broken faith 
defrauds the partner of his capital, and his friend, and hastes to pile 
up money for his unworthy heir. 'Tis true the riches grow to 
monstrous bulk ; yet there is something ever wanting to complete the 
imperfect sum. 

XXV. 

To Bacchus. Horace, as one possessed with the frantic inspiration 
of the god, foretells that he will sing in glorious verse the praises 
of Augustus. This is the only one of Horaces odes which may 
be said to be writte?i in the dithyra?nbic ma?iner. 

Whither, O Bacchus, art thou speeding me filled with thyself? 
To what groves or what caverns am I driven in the swiftness of 
my strange inspiration? Within what grots shall 1 be heard, 
essaying to plant among the stars and the council of Jove the 
everlasting glory of illustrious Caesar? I will utter something peer- 
less, something fresh, as yet unuttered by another mouth. Even so 
the sleepless Eviad on the hills is amazed, as she gazes upon Hebrus, 
and Thrace all white with snow, and Rhodope traversed by barbarian 
foot, as 'tis a joy to me, while I roam, to view the river-banks and 
solitary grove ! 

O thou that art lord of the Naiads, and of the Bacchanals strong 
to o'erthrow with their hands high-towering ash-trees, nothing 
mean or in lovviy strain, nothing mortal will I speak! Delightful 
is the peril, O king of the wine-press, to follow the god that wreathes 
his brow with vine-leaves' greenery ! 

XXVI. 

The poet, as a retiring veteran, dedicates to Venus the arms of a lover, 
while at the same time he begs her to punish the cruelty oj Chloe. 

I've passed my life of late as the girls' effective soldier, and not 
inglorious has been my warfare ; now my arms and lute dis charged 



HORACE, [III. 27. 



from service this wall shall hold, which guards the left side of the 
sea-born Venus. 

Here, here place the shining torches, and the crow-bars, and the 
bows which threatened the confronting doors. 

Lady, who dost govern blissful Cyprus, and Memphis exempt from 
Sithonian snow, O queen, with uplifted scourge touch once the dis- 
dainful Chloe. 

XXVII. 

The poet prays that good omens may attend Galatea on her voyage; at 
the same time he warns her that the weather is not to be trusted in 
the late autumn, that the sea is then especially dangerous, a7id 
that great caution is needed. It was by want of caution that 
Europa was carried away across the sea. Her story concludes the 
ode. 

May the omen of the screech-owl's oft-repeated note, and the bitch 
in whelp, or a dun she-wolf running down from the country of Lanu- 
vium, and a fox that has cubs, start upon their way the impious ; and 
may a snake cut short their journey when begun, as, darting like an 
arrow across the path, it chance to affright the nags : I, a far-seeing 
diviner in her behalf for whom I fear, ere the bird that forbodes 
impending showers revisit the stagnant pools, will call up from the 
rising of the sun the raven of prophetic note. 

May you be happy, ('tis my wish,) wherever you choose to be, and 
live with me in memory, my Galatea ; and may neither a magpie on 
the left forbid you to go forth, nor a wandering crow ! But you see 
with what a turmoil sloping Orion is troubled. I know well what the 
dark gulf of Adria is, and what misdeeds the fair Iapyx works. May 
the wives and children of our foes feel the unforeseen commotions of 
the rising South-wind, and the roar of the blackening deep, and the 
coasts that shudder beneath the lashing of the waves ! 

So too Europa to the treacherous bull entrusted her snowy side, 
and turned pale at the sea with its brood of monsters, and at the 
perils lurking all around her, though fearless before. But lately in 
the meadows, intent upon the flowers, and the maker of a garland 
due to the Nymphs, in the glimmering night she discerned nothing 
except the stars and billows. 

And so soon as she reached Crete mighty in her hundred towns, 
"O my father," she said, " a name abandoned by your daughter, and 
affection overcome by frenzy ! Whence, whither have I come ? Too 
slight is but one death for maidens' fault ! Do I, awake, lament the 
shameful act, or does an unsubstantial phantom, which flying forth 
from the ivory gate conveys a dream, beguile me though void of 
offence? Was it better to travel through a length of waves, or to 
gather fresh flowers ? If some one will now give up to me that detes- 
ted bull, I will strive to the utmost to mangle with the steel and break 
the horns of the monster, lately much beloved. Shamelessly I left 
my father's home, shamelessly I shrink from Orcus. Oh, if thou dost 



III. 28, 29.] THE ODES. 



hear these words, any one of the gods, grant that I may wander naked 
among lions ! Before disfiguring leanness overruns my comely cheeks, 
and the juices waste from off the blooming prey, I long, while fair to 
view, to furnish food for tigers. Worthless Europa, your father 
though absent presses you: why hesitate to die? You have the power, 
with the girdle that has usefully come with you, to wound your neck 
suspended from this mountain-ash. Or if the rocks and crags with 
points of death attract you, come, commit yourself to the whirling 
blast ; unless you choose to perform the task of spinning set by a 
mistress, you, of royal birth, and to be a concubine, and be handed 
over to a barbarian dame." 

As she bewailed herself, Venus stood by perfidiously smiling, and 
her son with bow unstrung. Presently, when she had jested enough ; 
"Refrain," she said, "from wrath and heated quarrel, when the hate- 
ful bull shall surrender his horns for you to mangle them. You know 
not that you are the bride of unconquerable Jove : hush your sobs : 
study to bear aright your mighty fortune ; half the divided world shall 
take your name." ■■„ >- 

XXVIII. 

An invitation to Lyde to visit the poet on the feast of Neptune, 
probably the twenty -third of July. 

What better can I do on Neptune's festal day? Bring forth the 
treasured Caecuban, my active Lyde, and apply violence to the fortress 
of wisdom. You mark the noonday sloping towards the eve, and yet, 
as if the winged day stood still, you pause to pluck down from the 
store-room the long-lingering wine-jar of Bibulus' consulate. 

We in turn will sing of Neptune, and the Nereids' green tresses; 
you with curving lyre shall celebrate Latona, and rapid Cynthia's 
darts. In our final lay she shall be sung of, who possesses Cnidos 
and the sparkling Cyclades, and visits Paphos with her team of 
swans \ Night also shall be praised in a hymn she well deserves. 

XXIX. 

Horace invites Maecenas to leave Rome for a time, in the midst of the 
hot season, and come to visit him at his Sabine cottage. Maecenas 
was at this time prefect of the City. Horace takes the opportunity 
of deprecating excessive anxiety about the future, which we 
cannot control. He represents himself as the philosopher of con- 
tenti7ient. 

Maecenas, scion of Etruscan kings, I long have had in store for you 
well-ripened wine in a cask not broached before, together with the 
blossom of roses, and balsam expressed for your hair. Tear yourself 
away from impediments ; do not always survey well-watered Tibur, 
and ^Esula's sloping corn-land, and the heights of parricide Telego- 
nus. Forsake your palling sumptuousness, and your pile, the 



72 HORACE. [HI. 30. 

neighbour of the lofty clouds; cease to admire the smoke and 
splendour and din of opulent Rome ! Changes are mostly welcome to 
the rich ; and suppers of neat simplicity, beneath the humble roof of 
the poor, without canopy and purple, are wont to smooth away the 
wrinkles of an anxious brow. 

Now the bright father of Andromeda displays his fire which lay 
hid before, now Procyon rages, and the star of the rampant lion, as 
the sun brings again the parching days. Now with his languid flock 
the weary shepherd seeks the shade and stream, and the brakes which 
shaggy Silvan haunts, and the voiceless river-bank is without the 
wandering winds. 

You ponder what position best becomes the state, and for the sake 
of the City anxiously fear what the Seres are plotting, and Bactra, 
once the realm of Cyrus, and Tanais distracted by feuds. 

God in his providence shrouds in the darkness of night the issue of 
future time, and smiles if a mortal flutter to pierce farther than he 
may. Be careful to regulate serenely what is present with you ; all 
else is swept along in the fashion of the stream, which at one time, 
within the heart of its channel, peacefully glides down to the Tuscan 
sea; at another, whirls along worn stones and uprooted trees and 
flocks and houses all together, amid the roaring of the hills and 
neighbouring wood, whene'er a furious deluge chafes the quiet rills. 

He will live master of himself, and cheerful, who has the power to 
say from day to day, "I have lived! to-morrow let the Sire over- 
spread the sky either with cloudy gloom or with unsullied light ; yet 
he will not render of no effect aught that lies behind, nor shape anew 
and make a thing not done, what once the flying hour has borne 
away. " 

Fortune, delighting in her cruel work, and perversely bent on 
playing her capricious game, shifts to and fro her unstable honours, 
kind now to me, now to another. I praise her while she stays : if she 
flaps her nimble wings, I surrender what she has given, and wrap 
myself up in my own virtue, and woo undowried honest poverty. 

J Tis not for me, if the mast is groaning beneath the stormy Africus, 
to resort to piteous prayers, and strive to bargain with vows that my 
Cyprian and Tyrian wares may not add riches to the grasping sea. 
Then myself, under the protection of a two-oared skiff, safe through 
the ^Egaean's brawls the breeze will waft, and Pollux with his twin 
brother. 

XXX. 

The Poefs monument 

I have reared a monument more enduring than brass, and loftier 
than the pyramids' royal structure ; which not the wasting shower, 
not the raving North-wind can have power to overthrow, or the 
countless succession of years, and the ages' flight. 

I shall not wholly die, and a large portion of my being will escape 
the Queen of death ; ceaselessly shall I grow, and be fresh in the 



III. 30.] THE ODES. 73 

praise of posterity, so long as with the silent virgin the pontiff shall 
ascend the Capitol. 

I shall be told of, how that where brawls impetuous Aufidus, and 
where Daunus, poor in his store of water, reigned over rustic tribes, 
I, rising from a low estate to greatness, was the first who adapted to 
Italian measures the ^Eolian lay. 

Assume, my Melpomene, the pride of place your merits have 
won, and with the Delphic laurel graciously bind my hair. 



BOOK IV. 



I. 



Horace begs Venus not to renew her war against him, now that he 
is growing old; he says that she would do better to make his 
younger ff lend Paullus Maximus her champion. But unawares 
he feels himself possessed by love. 

O Venus, dost thou wake the warfare that long has paused? 
Forbear, I pray thee, I pray thee! I am not the man that I was 
beneath kind Cinara's sway. Cease, cruel mother of the gentle 
Loves, near my tenth lustre's close to bend to thy soft behests one 
now too hard to feel them. 

Away, whither winning prayers of young men call thee back. 
More seasonably to the house of Paullus Maximus wilt thou speed, 
wafted on the wings of shining swans, and revel there, if thou dost 
seek to fire a heart that is meet for thy influence. 

For he, high-born and beautiful withal, and one who lacks not 
speech in behalf of the anxious arraigned, and a youth of a hundred 
accomplishments, will carry far and wide the banners of thy com- 
mand; and whene'er, as he prevails, he chance to laugh to scorn 
his rival's lavish gifts, near Alba's meres he will set thee up of 
marble beneath a citron roof. 

There will thy nostrils breathe a wealth of incense, and thou wilt 
be charmed with the blended notes of the lyre and Berecynthian 
pipe, not without the flute; there twice each day boys joined with 
blooming maids, as they adore thy divinity, thrice with fair foot 
shall shake the ground according to the Salian measure. 

Myself not damsel now nor youth delights, nor fond hope of a 
sympathising soul, nor to contend in cups of wine, nor to entwine 
my brows with fresh-plucked flowers. 

But why alas, my Ligurine, oh why flows down my cheeks the 
slowly-dropping tear? Why, in the midst of fluent words, with 
an uncomely silence fails my tongue ? In the dreams of night I now 
have caught and hold you; now 'tis you I follow o'er the lawn 
of the Plain of Mars; you, hard-hearted one, I follow through the 
rolling waters. 

II. 

To lulus Antonius, the son of M. Antonius the triumvir. It is a 
hopeless task to attempt to rival Pindar. His dithyrambics, 
pceans, encomia, epinicia, and dirges. Horace contrasts with 
Pindar's genius his own studied poetry. The triumph of Au- 
gustus over the German tribe of the Sygambri. 

Whoe'er, lulus, essays to rival Pindar, supports himself on wings 
waxened by the art of Daedalus, and is doomed to givQ his name 
to the glassy sea. 



IV. 3-] THE ODES. 75 

As a torrent rushing from a mountain-top, which rains have fed 
beyond its wonted banks, so surges Pindar, and in boundless force 
with deep mouth pours along ; worthy to win Apollo's laurel- wreath, 
whether through his bold dithyrambics he rolls new phrases forth, 
and onward sweeps on measures freed from law ; or whether he sings 
of gods, or of kings the offspring of gods, beneath whose hands the 
Centaurs fell by a deserved death, beneath whom fell the flame of 
the dreadful Chimaera; or whether he records those whom the 
palm of Elis brings back home exalted to the sky, or the boxer 
or the steed, and presents them with a gift more precious than a 
hundred effigies ; or whether he laments the youthful lover snatched 
away from has weeping maiden, and extols to the stars his might 
and spirit and golden virtues, and withholds him from the gloom of 
Orcus. 

Strong is the gale that wafts the swan of Dirce, whene'er, Anto- 
nius, he spreads his wings into the high spaces of the clouds. I 
in the mood and manner of a Matine bee, (which culls the pleasant 
thyme with ceaseless toil about the wood and slopes of dewy Tibur,) 
a tiny minstrel, mould my studied verse. 

You, a poet of a nobler quill, shall sing of Caesar, whene'er, 
adorned with the well-earned laurel leaf, he shall lead captive along 
the sacred slope the fierce Sygambri: nothing more great or good 
than him have Fate and Heaven's grace bestowed on earth, nor 
will they ever give, albeit the ages return to the primeval gold. 

And you shall- sing of our joyous days and the City's public 
game for the return of Caesar which has been granted us, and of the 
forum bereft of its lawsuits. 

Then, if I shall speak aught worthy to be heard, the best power 
of my voice shall bear its part; and blest in the regaining of Caesar 
I will sing of thee, O fair daylight, of thee that art worthy to be 
praised ! 

And while he moves along, we, all the citizens, will utter not once 
alone thy name, I o Triumphe! Io Triumphe! and will offer gifts of 
incense to the gracious gods. 

Ten bulls and as many cows will pay your vow ; my own a tender 
calf will pay, which has left its dam, and is growing to youth amid 
the abundant herbage; reflecting on its brow the crescent fires of 
the moon when bringing round her third rising ; where it has 
received the mark, snow-white to view, all else a tawny red. 

III. 

To Melpomene. The reward of her favourite. To her it is due 
that I am now acknowledged to be the lyric poet of Rome. 

The man whom at his birth with gentle glance thou, O Melpomene, 
once hast looked upon, him the Isthmian toils shall not ennoble 
as a boxer, him the fleet courser shall not bear along a conqueror 
in Achaean car, nor shall the business of war exhibit him to the 
Capitol, a chief adorned with the foliage of Delos, because he has 
beaten down the swelling threats of kings : — 



76 HORACE. [IV. 4. 

But the streams that flow beside the fruitful Tibur, and the 
tangled leafage of the groves, shall fashion him to be of high estate 
in the yEolian lay. 

The children of Rome, the princess of cities, deign to set me 
among the lovely companies of the bards ; and now I am bitten less 
by Envy's tooth. 

Thou that dost sway the golden shell's sweet ringing, Pierian 
Lady, thou that canst give even to dumb fishes, if it please thee, 
the music of the swan ; 

'Tis to thy bounty that all this belongs, that I am pointed out by 
the finger of passers-by as the minstrel of the Roman lyre : that I 
draw a poet's breath and please, if I do please, is thine. 

IV. 

This ode is on the victory of Claudius Drusus Nero, the younger 
son of the Empress Livia, over the Vindelici. Drusus is com- 
pared to a young eagle and lion. His stepfather Augustus is 
praised, as having trained him to greatness. The influence of 
birth and of education on the character. The battle of the Metaurus 
is recalled, as having been won by an ancestor of Drusus, 
Hannibal is made to extol the valour and resolution of Rome. 

Like the winged minister of the thunderbolt, to whom the monarch 
of the gods committed the dominion over roving birds, when he had 
proved him faithful in the matter of yellow-haired Ganymede : — 

Erewhile his youth and ancestral spirit has driven him forth 
from the nest, all ignorant of toils, and soon the gales of Spring, 
when the clouds are swept away, have taught him, still trembling, 
unwonted efforts ; next, a vigorous impulse has sent him as a foe 
upon the sheepfolds, now the passion for feast and fray has spurred 
him on against the wrestling serpents : — 

Or like a lion just weaned from the milk of his tawny mother's teat, 
whom a roe has seen when absorbed upon the smiling pastures, 
doomed to die beneath his unfleshed tooth : — 

Such the Vindelici saw Drusus waging war beneath the Rhaetian 
Alps ; (whence they derived the custom which throughout all time 
arms their right hand with the Amazonian battle-axe, I stay not to 
inquire ; and all things 'tis not permitted us to know ;) but hordes 
victorious long and widely, in their turn vanquished by the strategy 
of a youth, felt what was the power of an intellect, what was 
the power of a genius duly nurtured beneath the sanctuary of an 
auspicious roof, what was the power of the fatherly spirit borne by 
Augustus towards the Neros in their boyhood. 

Brave men by brave and good men are engendered; there is in 
steers, there is in horses the merit of their sires ; nor do fierce eagles 
beget the unwarlike dove. 

But teaching furthers inbred energy, and genuine modes of 
culture nerve the soul; whenever morals chance to fail, defects 
disfigure minds whose birth is good. 

What debt, O Rome, thou owest to the Neros, the river Metaurus 



IV. 5 .] THE ODES. 77 

is witness, and Hasdrubal put to rout, and that bright day when 
gloom was chased away from Latium, the day which smiled the 
first with fair success, since the fiend of Africa, as flame through 
firebrands, or Eurus through Sicilian waves, careered through the 
towns of Italy. 

Henceforth the Roman manhood grew in an unbroken course of 
prosperous toils, and the shrines, laid waste by the Carthaginians* 
sacrilegious outbreak, held gods that stood erect ; 

And thus at last spoke treacherous Hannibal : "We stags, the 
prey of ravening wolves, are still perversely pursuing those whom 
'tis our splendid triumph to foil and flee. 

"The race, which valiantly from Ilium burnt conveyed its sacred 
things tossed on the Etruscan seas, and its children and aged sires 
to Ausonian towns, that race, as an ilex-tree lopped with the sturdy 
axe on Algidus that teems with shadowy bowers, through losses, 
through carnage, draws means and spirit from the steel itself. 
Not with greater vigour, when its body had been cleft, did the 
hydra grow up against Hercules incensed at the defeat; nor have 
the Colchians reared a mightier prodigy, or Thebes, Echion's town. 

"Plunge it in the deep, — it will come forth more fair: grapple 
with it, — 'twill throw to earth with high renown the unscathed 
conqueror, and wage wars for its matrons to tell of. 

"No more to Carthage shall I send proud messengers: fallen, 
fallen is all hope, and the fortune of our line, now that Hasdrubal 
is slain. 

"There's nought that Claudian hands will not achieve; for them 
- both Jove protects with gracious power, and skilful diligence speeds 
through the perilous points of war. 

V. 

A prayer for the speedy return of Augustus, who, after his victories 
over the Germans, retnained some time in settling affairs in the 
western provinces. He actually returned to Rome at the beginning 
of the year 13 B.C. 

You that were born by the kindness of the gods, most excellent pro- 
tector of the race of Romulus, too long have you now been absent ; 
return, since it was a speedy return which you promised to the Fathers' 
holy conclave. Restore, good chief, the light to your country: for 
when your countenance, like the spring, has beamed upon the people, 
more pleasantly passes the day, and fairer shine the suns. 

As with vows and omens and prayers a mother calls her boy, 
whom the South wind's envious breath keeps sundered from his sweet 
home, while he tarries across the waters of the Carpathian sea longer 
than the term of a year, and never does she turn her face away from 
the winding shore ; — so, smitten with the yearnings of constancy, our 
fatherland asks for Caesar. 

For the steer in safety ranges through the fields ; Ceres nourishes 
the fields, and bounteous Prosperity; the mariners ever are flying 
across a pacified main; Honour shrinks from giving cause for re- 



78 HORACE. [IV. 6. 

proach ; by not one outrage is the pure household stained ; morality 
and a law have quelled the tainted sin ; mothers are commended by 
the likeness of their children; punishment, a close companion, follows 
guilt. 

Who would dread the Parthian, who would dread the icy Scythian, 
who would dread the brood which savage Germany engenders, while 
Caesar is preserved? Who would heed the warfare of fierce Iberia? 

On his own hills each man passes through the day, and weds the 
vine to the unmarried trees ; after this, he joyfully returns to his cups, 
arid to the second course invites you as a god; you with many a 
prayer, you with wine poured forth from the bowl he worships, and 
your divinity he mingles with his household-gods, as did Greece, in 
her regard for Castor and mighty Hercules. 

Oh, that you may, good chief, grant to Hesperia a length of holi- 
days ! So pray we sober in the morning, when the day is all before 
us ; so pray we bedewed with wine, when the sun is sinking down 
beneath the Ocean. 

VI. 

Hymn to Apollo. This ode forms a kind of introduction to the 

Secular Hymn. 

God, whose might to punish a boastful tongue the offspring of Niobe 
felt, and which Tityos the ravisher felt, and Phthian Achilles, almost 
the conqueror of lofty Troy, a warrior greater than all the rest, yet 
not a match for thee ; albeit he, the son of ocean Thetis, as he fought 
with his terrific spear, shook the Dardan battlements. He, like a 
pine struck by the biting steel, or a cypress beneath the East wind's 
shock, fell down extended far and wide, and laid his neck in Trojan 
dust. 

He would not, shut up in the horse which counterfeited an offering 
to Minerva, have ensnared the Trojans in their ill-timed revelling, 
and Priam's palace in the gaiety of its dances : but openly dreadful 
to the captured, (alas, foul crime ! alas !) he would have burnt with 
Achaean flames the children that could not speak, even him who was 
still hidden within his mother's womb ; had not the sire of the gods, 
vanquished by thy prayers and those of sweet Venus, granted to the 
fortunes of JEneas a circle of walls built with a fairer omen. 

Minstrel, teacher of Thalia with the ringing voice, Phoebus, who 
dost bathe thy hair in Xanthus' stream, defend the honour of the 
Daunian Muse, Agyieus ever young! 'Tis Phoebus who has given 
me inspiration, Phoebus has given me the art of song and the name 
of poet. 

Flower of our maidens, and boys born of noble parents, you that 
are the wards of the Delian goddess who with her bow stops the 
flight of lynxes and stags, observe the Lesbian measure and the 
note my finger strikes, while you duly hymn Latona's youthful son, 
and duly hymn the Shiner of the Night with her growing torch, her 
who is gracious to the crops, and swift to roll along the current of 
the months. 



IV. 7, 8.] THE ODES. 79 

Presently, as a bride, you will say: "I, when the cycle brought 
round its festal days, rendered a hymn that was pleasing to Heaven, 
well taught in the measures of Horace the bard." 

VII. 

To his noble friend the eloquent advocate Torquatus, on the return of 
Spring. Though the earth renews itself and the waning moon 
waxes afresh, yet death is the endi7ig of human life. Let us then 
make the best of our days while they last. 

The snows have fled away ; now grass to the plains comes back, and 
foliage to the trees ; Earth changes her phase, and streams subsiding 
glide within their banks ; the Grace, with the Nymphs and her twin 
sisters, ventures unclad to lead along the dance. 

Not to hope for immortality the year warns you, and the hour that 
whirls along the kindly day. The cold grows mild beneath the 
western gale's, Summer treads on the steps of Spring, doomed itself 
to perish, so soon as fruit-bearing Autumn has poured forth his store, 
and lifeless Winter next speeds back again. 

Yet the swift moons make good their losses in the sky ; we, when 
we have fallen to that place whither fell father ^Eneas, whither fell 
wealthy Tullus, and Ancus, are but dust and shadow. 

Who knows whether the gods in heaven will add to-morrow's 
hours to the sum to-day completes? All that you shall chance to 
have bestowed on your own dear heart will escape the covetous hands 
of your heir. 

When once you have met your doom, and Minos has pronounced 
upon you his august decree, not your birth, Torquatus, not your 
eloquence, not your piety will restore you to life: for neither does 
Diana release from the darkness of hell her chaste Hippolytus, nor 
has Theseus power to break off the fetters of Lethe from his beloved 
Pirithous. 

VIII. 

To C. Marcius Censorinus. The poet's gift is an immortality of 
fame. It was usual for friends to exchange presents called 
strence, "etrennes," on the Kale?tds of March and at the Saturn- 
alia, towards the end of December. 

Censorinus, I would munificently bestow on my familiar friends 
bowls and pleasing vases of bronze ; I would bestow tripods, that 
were the prizes won by gallant Greeks ; and you _ would bear 
away not the meanest of my gifts, if I in truth were rich in works 
of art, which either Parrhasius or Scopas produced, the latter skilful 
to present in stone, the former in limpid colours, at one time a mortal, 
at another a god. But the means to do this I possess not ; nor does 
your fortune or your choice need toys like these. 

Inverse is your delight; verse we are able to bestow, and to set 
its value on the gift. Not marble statues graved with a people's 
inscriptions, whereby soul and life after death come back to valiant 
leaders, not Hannibal's hurried flight, and threats flung back upon 



8o HORACE. [IV. 9. 

himself, not the burning of impious Carthage, blazon more plainly 
the exploits of him, who, when he came 'back home, had earned 
a name from Africa subdued, than do the Calabrian Muses; and if 
paper holds its peace, you will never bear away the guerdon of what 
you have excellently done. What would the son of Mars and Ilia be, 
if jealous Silence suppressed the deserts of Romulus? ^Eacus, rescued 
from the Stygian waves, the genius and goodwill and tongue of mighty 
poets commit enshrined to the isles of wealth. 

'Tis the Muse who forbids to die the man that is worthy of renown ; 
'tis the Muse who blesses him with a place in heaven. Thus the 
vigorous Hercules is a guest at the coveted banquets of Jove. The 
sons of Tyndarus, a bright constellation, rescue from the depth of the 
waters the shattered ships ; Liber, with fresh vine-leaves decked, to 
happy issues brings the vows of men. * 

IX. 

To M. Lollius, who was consul 21 B.C. The immortality of poetry. 
Many heroes of old have become forgotten because they had no 
poet to sing their exploits. Horace will immortalize the feats and 
the virtue of Lollius. 

Lest perchance you may deem that the words will perish, which I, 
born beside Aufidus who echoes afar, utter by arts not made known 
before, words to be wedded to the strings of the lyre ; — think how, if 
Mseonian Homer possess the higher seat, the Muse of Pindar does 
not lie unfamed, and the songs of Ceos, and the threatening verses of 
Alcseus, and Stesichorus' stately lays ; and whate'er of yore Anacreon 
playfully sung, time has not destroyed; still breathes the love, and still 
live the ardours, that were committed to the lute of the ^Eolian girl. 

Not Laconian Helen alone has been fired with love for an adul- 
terer's glossy dressed locks, and admired his robes o'erspread 
with gold, and his regal array and retinue ; nor was Teucer the 
first to point shafts on a Cydonian bow ; not once only was Ilium 
assailed ; 'twas not Idomeneus or Sthenelus alone who fought battles 
meet for the Muses to rehearse ; not the first was dauntless Hector or 
valiant Deiphobus to sustain wounds for the sake of their chaste 
wives and their children. Many a brave man lived ere Agamemnon ; 
but they all, unwept and unknown, are o'erwhelmed by eternal night, 
because they are without a sacred bard. 

Worth hidden is not far from buried sloth. I will not pass you by 
unsung and unpraised by my pages, and will not, O my Lollius, 
suffer envious Forgetfulness undisturbed to prey on your feats so 
manifold. You have a mind that is both sagacious in action, and 
steady in prosperous and perilous times ; one that punishes greedy 
fraud, and abstatfis from money which draws the world to follow it ; 
and your mind is a consul not only for a single year, but so often as it, a 
good and faithful judge, sets the honourable before the expedient, 
flings back with lofty mien the bribes of the guilty, and through op- 
posing battalions victoriously opens a way for its arms. 

You would not rightly call "blest" the man who has great posses- 



IV. io, ii.] THE ODES. 



sions : more rightly does he assume the title of "blest," who has 
learned how to use wisely the gifts of Heaven, and to endure stern 
penury, and who fears disgrace worse than death; he for his dear 
friends or fatherland is not afraid to perish. 

X. 

To Ligurine. 

You that are cruel as yet, and mighty in the gifts of Venus, when the 
unexpected down shall come upon your pride, and the locks that now 
float upon your shoulders shall have fallen away, and the hue, that 
now surpasses the blossom of the bright-red rose, shall be changed, 
and transform Ligurine into a shaggy visage; you will say, alas, 
whene'er you chance to see yourself in the mirror, a different form : — 
"The mind I have to-day, why as a boy did I have it not? Or why 
to these feelings return not my unblemished cheeks?" 

XL 

Horace invites Phyllis to visit him on the thirteenth of April, the 
birth-day of Maecenas. 

I have a cask well filled with Alban wine which is passing its ninth 
year ; I have in my garden, Phyllis, parsley for weaving garlands ; I 
have a large abundance of ivy, wherewith you bind your hair and 
brightly shine. The house is smiling with silver; the altar, twined 
with wreaths of holy vervain, longs to be sprinkled with the sacrifice 
of a lamb ; the whole band is hurrying ; boys mixed with girls are 
running to and fro ; the flames are flickering, as through the roof they 
whirl the sooty smoke. 

Yet, that you may know to what delights you are summoned, you 
have to keep the Ides, that day which divides April, the month of 
sea-born Venus ; that day which is with me rightly a high day, and 
holier almost than my own birthday, because from this dawn my 
Maecenas reckons his flowing tide of years. 

Telephus, whom you desire to win, that youth not of your condition, 
a girl wealthy and wanton has already enthralled, and keeps him 
bound with pleasing chain. Phaethon scathed by the thunderbolt 
affrights ambitious hopes ; and winged Pegasus affords you a solemn 
warning, (he who would not brook his earthly rider Bellerophon,) 
always to aim at what is meet for you, and, by deeming it a sin to 
hope for more than is lawful, to avoid an ill-assorted lover. 

Come now, latest of my loves, (for henceforth I will never feel the 
flame for any other woman,) truly learn measures to render with your 
lovely voice ; by song the gloom of care will be diminished. 



HOR. 



82 HORACE. [IV. 12, 13. 



XII. 

This ode, written in the early spring, is addressed to Virgil; though 
perhaps not to the poet It is an invitation to a feast: but Horace 
playfully tells his friend that he must pay for his wine by bringing 
with him a box of perfume. 

Now Spring's companions, they who soothe the main, the Thracian 
breezes, drive along the sails ; now neither meads are stiff nor rivers 
roar swollen with winter snow. 

The bird is building her nest, while she sadly mourns for Itys, — 
the bird unhappy, and the eternal shame of Cecrops' house, because 
she sinfully avenged the barbarous lusts of kings. 

Amid the velvet grass the guardians of the goodly sheep are play- 
ing lays upon the pipe, and charm the god to whom the flocks are 
pleasant and Arcadia's dusky hills. 

The season, O my Virgil, has brought thirst ; but if you yearn to 
quaff the vintage which was pressed at Cales, you that are the client 
of our youthful nobles, with nard you must purchase your wine. A 
tiny alabaster box of nard will draw forth a cask of wine, which now - 
reposes in the stores of Sulpicius, a cask of bounteous power to grant 
fresh hopes, and of prevailing force to wash away the bitters of care. 

If you are eager to approach these joys, come quickly with your 
merchandise ; I design not to steep you in my cups exempt from cost, 
like a rich man in a plenteous mansion. 

But fling aside delays and thoughts of gain ; and mindful, while it 
may be, of the dark fires, mix with your meditations a brief folly ; 
'tis sweet at fitting time to lose our wisdom. 

XIII. 

The poet taunts Lyce, now growing old, with her desperate atte?7tpts 
still to seem young and fascinating. This ode is perhaps intended 
to form a contrast to the tenth of the third Book. 

Lyce, the gods have heard my prayers, the gods have heard them, 
Lyce ; you are growing an old woman, and yet would fain seem fair, 
and you shamelessly sport and drink, and in your cups with quavering 
note essay to wake regardless Love. He keeps his watch on Chia's 
beauteous cheeks, Chia in youthful bloom, and skilled to play the 
lute. For all disdainful he flies by the withered oaks, and shrinks 
from you, because those yellow teeth disfigure you, because wrinkles 
disfigure you, and the snows of the head. 

Not robes of Coan purple now, nor brilliant pearls, bring back to 
you the times which once the flying day has stored and shut up in 
the public annals. 

Whither has fled your charm, alas! or whither your bloom? 
Whither your graceful motion ! What have you of her, of her, who 
used to breathe the spirit of love, who had stolen me from myself 



IV. i 4 .] THE ODES. S 3 

away ; she, blessed after Cinara, a form well-loved, and full of win- 
ning wiles? 

But Fate to Cinara granted fleeting years, while she resolved to 
preserve Lyce to be a match for the date of the beldame crow ; so 
that glowing youths might be able to view with many a laugh the 
torch sunk away into the ashes. 

XIV. 

The praise of Tiberius Claudius Nero, the step-son of Augustus, 
on his victories over the tribes of the Rhaetian Alps. His brother 
Drusus is the hero of the fourth ode of this Book. But the present 
ode is so f rained as to be in the main a panegyric of the emperor. 

What zeal of the Fathers, or what zeal of the Quirites, with ample 
awards of honours, can for ever immortalise your virtues, O Augustus, 
by inscriptions and recording annals, O mightiest of all princes, 
wherever the sun sheds light on shores where man may dwell ? You 
the Vindelici, free before from Latin law, lately learned to know, 
what was your might in war. 

For with your soldiers Drusus fiercely struck to earth with more 
than a single requital the Genauni, a restless tribe, and the nimble 
Breuni, and the castles set upon the dreadful Alps : next, the elder of 
the Neros engaged in an obstinate conflict, and by the favouring 
grace of Heaven routed the savage Rhseti ; he, glorious to view in the 
struggle of Mars, with what havoc he beat down the breasts that 
were vowed to a free death, much as the South wind troubles the 
wild waves, when the group of the Pleiades is piercing through the 
clouds ; he, swift to overthrow the enemy's squadrons, and drive the 
neighing charger through the midst of the fires. 

So bull-shaped Aufidus is whirled along, who flows beside Apulian 
Daunus' realm, when he begins to rage, and against the well-tilled 
fields designs a terrible deluge, — as Claudius with overwhelming 
rush swept away the iron ranks of the barbarians, and, by mowing 
down the foremost and the last, strewed the ground, a conqueror 
without disaster; while you supplied troops, while you supplied 
strategy, and the gods that are your friends. 

For on the same day on which Alexandria humbly opened wide to 
you her havens and deserted palace, propitious Fortune, after the 
space of three lustres, rendered successful the issues of war, and 
conferred upon your accomplished commands the glory and the 
honour that we yearned for. 

You the Cantabrian reveres, unconquerable ere now, and the Mede 
iand the Indians; you the roving Scythian reveres, O unfailing 
guardian of Italy and sovereign Rome! You Nile obeys, who hides 
his fountains' sources, and Ister; you rushing Tigris obeys, you the 
monster-haunted Ocean obeys, which roars against the distant Britons. 
You the land of Gaul obeys, she who quakes not at death, and the 

1,land of hardy Iberia ; to you the Sygambri, who delight in carnage, do 
homage with arms laid down. 
6-2 



34 HORACE. [IV. 15. 



XV. 

This epilogue to the fourth Book contains a panegyric of Augustus, as 
the restorer of peace, the reformer of morals, the guardian of the 
state, and the dread offoreig?z enemies, 

Phoebus, when I would sing of battles and conquered cities, sharply 
warned me with the note of his lyre, not to spread my tiny sails 
across the Tuscan main. 

Your age, O Caesar, has both given back to the fields abundant 
crops, and restored to Jove, our country's god, the standards torn 
down from the Parthians' haughty portals, and closed the gate of 
Quirine Janus freed from wars, and imposed the regular rule of order 
to be a curb on wild-wandering lawlessness, and put away our faults, 
and recalled the ancient virtues, whereby the glory of Latium and the 
might of Italy grew, and the renown and majesty of the empire was 
extended to the rising of the sun, from his chamber in the West. 

While Cassar is guardian of the state, no frenzy among the citizens 
or violence, shall drive away our repose ; no passion, which forges 
swords and embroils unhappy towns. 

Never shall they who drink the deep Danube break the Julian 
decrees ; never shall the Getae, never shall the Seres or the faithless 
Parthians ; never they who are born beside the stream of Tanais. 

And we, on common days and holy days as well, while we enjoy 
the gifts of playful Liber, together with our children and ourmatrons, 
having first duly made our prayer to Heaven, will sing, after the 
manner of our forefathers, in strain blended with Lydian flutes, of 
chieftains who fulfilled all Virtue's work, and of Troy and Anchises 
and the offspring of bounteous Venus. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE SECULAR HYMN. 

According to an oracle in Greek Hexameters preserved by Zosimus, 
the Sibylline books divided time into " secies" of a hundred and ten 
years each ; and Horace in this hymn follows the same method of 
division. But Valerius Antias says that the term of a secle was one 
hundred years. Others have thought that the secle was not of any 
specific length, but that its duration was bounded by portents and 
signs given by the gods. So the haruspex Vulcatius announced that 
the comet which appeared shortly after the assassination of Julius 
Caesar indicated the end of the ninth secle and the beginning of the 
tenth. For according to the belief of the Etruscans the secies were 
ten in number ; and Servius says that the Cumaean Sibyl divided the 
secies by the names of different metals, and that she also declared 
what divinity was the lord of each secle, the tenth secle belonging to 
the Sun. Perhaps the secle immediately before the last was sacred 
to Diana the sister of Apollo the god of light, as November, the last 
but one of the months, was sacred to the goddess by the tradition of 
the civil year. 

Virgil speaks of the computation of time by secies at the beginning 
of his fourth Eclogue : "Now has come the latest age of the Cumaean 
(Sibylline) hymn ; the mighty line of cycles begins its round anew." 
And soon after, addressing Diana, he says "Thine own Apollo now is 
king." Virgil seems to identify the system of secies with that of the 
"Great Year" of the world, which was also called the "Platonic Year," 
because the doctrine was especially cultivated by the Platonists and 
Stoics. This "year" was supposed to be completed when all the 
heavenly bodies should return to the same position that they were in 
at the beginning of the world. When this should happen, it was said 
that every part of the universe, including man, would repeat its past 
history. It appears that Virgil looks upon the secies of the Sibylline 
books as corresponding to the "months" of the Great Year. Ten or 
twelve secies of a hundred and ten years each would not, however, by 
any means make up the shortest of the enormous periods of time of 
which the Great Year has been variously computed to consist ; but on 
such a subject anything like accuracy is certainly not to be expected. 
The idea which lies at the root of the system of secies and that of the 
Great Year seems to be the same : namely, that all the universe is 
passing through a perpetual series of revolutions, and repeats itself at 
settled periods. 

It is clear that the Romans were by no means certain or agreed as 
to when the end of a secle was really completed. The emperor 
Claudius said that Augustus had anticipated the time, and that the 
term was really ended in his own reign. Domitian also celebrated 
Secular games. These games in many points bore a resemblance to 
those called during the republic the Tarentine or Taurian games, but 



86 HORACE. 



in other points they seem to be greatly different; and it does not 
appear likely that that these two festivals were actually identical. 

The Secular hymn was sung on the last of the three days during 
which the feast continued, by a chorus of twenty-seven boys and the 
same number of maidens, each of whom had both parents still 
living. 

In this poem Horace appears as a kind of poet laureate, writing by 
the direction of Augustus.- It was written in the forty-ninth year of 
the poet's life. The hymn does not possess a great measure of the 
genius and spirit which mark many of the odes : but it has a solem- 
nity and dignity which are well suited to the subject of religion. For 
Horace is here a religious poet, singing by the command of the chief 
of the state, and according to the admonition of the Sibylline verses, 
which were made known to the Roman people, when the Senate 
ordered the "Fifteen Men," who were the keepers of these books, to 
consult the holy oracles. Anything like fervour or excitement would 
have been out of place in the hymn of the orthodox poet of the City. 
The religion of Rome was very different from that of Greece. It was 
unimaginative and formal. It was a strictly national religion, with 
the advantages and disadvantages of established forms. 

The Romans were singularly averse to change in the minutest 
points of their rites and ceremonies. To the scrupulous observance 
of these they attributed the successful growth of their empire. In 
later times the decline and disasters of the state were imputed to the 
spread of Christianity, and the consequent neglect of the orthodox 
gods. This hymn, so grave and majestic, is quite in keeping with 
this feeling. If we may say so, it is almost Virgilian in character. 
Horace is hardly like himself here. He is as the minister of Church 
and State. When he prays to the Sun, it is to the effect that the Sun 
in all his course may gaze on nought that is greater than the city of 
Rome. Ilithyia is entreated to bless marriage and to prosper the 
decrees of the senate, so that Rome may never want a numerous race 
of men. May Ceres bless the crops! May the Fates grant that the 
future of Rome may be as great and glorious as her past ! 

Of this feeling the emperor himself, the head of Church and State 
at once, offering a sacrifice of white oxen, the lineal descendant of 
Anchises and Venus, is an emblem and sign. All the world is sub- 
ject to Rome. The Saturnian age of Truth, Peace, and Honour is 
about to return. Rome will conquer that she may be clement to the 
conquered. 

The variation of the caesura, according to the Greek usage, adopted 
so often in this hymn, impairs the liveliness and easy flow of the lines: 
in other odes it would have marred the grace and beauty of the verse ; 
but here it suits the solemnity and formality of the subject. The 
praise which the elder Scaliger gives the hymn, that it is "learned, 
full, terse, elaborate, happy," is well deserved. At the conclusion the 
poet, speaking by the chorus, expresses a confident hope that the 
people may return to their homes with the full assurance of the favour 
of all the assembled gods of the Roman empire. 



THE SECULAR HYMN. 



The opening address to Apollo and Diana, first together, then 
separately: prayers to other divinities. The two Powers are 
intreated to bless the Roman people, and Augustus. Description 
of the happy state of the ejnpire wider Caesafs rule. The final 
invocation of Apollo and Diana. The conclusion. 

Phoebus, and Diana mistress of the woods, ye that are the shining 
beauty of the sky, ye that are ever adorable and adored, grant 
the blessings we pray for at a hallowed season ; at which the verses 
of the Sibyl have counselled that chosen maidens and chaste youths 
recite a hymn to the gods who take pleasure in the Seven Hills. 

Kindly Sun, who with thy glittering car dost draw forth and hide 
away the daylight, and dost rise to life, another and the same, 
mayest thou be able to gaze on nought that is greater than the city 
of Rome. 

Ilithyia, who dost give thy grace duly to bring forth at their full 
time the offspring, protect our matrons, whether thou deemest it 
meet to be invoked as Lucina or as Genitalis. 

Goddess, rear the young to ripeness, and further the decrees of 
the Fathers on the marrying of women and on the law of matrimony, 
that is to be fruitful in the birth of a new generation: so that the 
settled round, which runs through years eleven times ten, may 
bring again the hymns and games with their attending crowds, 
thrice in the bright day, and as often in the pleasant night. 

And ye, O Fates, that have the power truly to predict that which 
has been uttered once for all, and which the ordained issue of events 
keeps sure, add propitious destinies to those that are now accom- 
plished. 

May Earth, prolific in fruits and flocks, present Ceres with her 
garland of ears of corn ; may the healthful showers and gales of 
Jove nurse the springing plants. 

Gracious and gentle with thy shaft laid by, Apollo, hear the boys 
who pray to thee ; hear the girls, O Luna, crescented queen of the 
stars. 

If Rome is your workmanship, and bands from Ilium reached the 
Tuscan shore, a number bidden to change, by a prosperous voyage, 
their household gods and city; for whom, unharmed, through burn- 
ing Troy, holy ^Eneas, outliving his country, opened a free path, 
he, destined to give them more than they had left; — ye gods, 



88 HORACE. 

grant morals fair to docile youth; ye gods, to quiet old age grant 
repose; grant to the people of Romulus wealth and progeny and 
every glory ! 

And may the illustrious descendant of Anchises and Venus obtain 
the blessings for which he worships ye with the homage of white 
oxen, still superior to his enemy, still merciful to the prostrate foe ! 

Now by sea and land the Median fears our mighty forces and 
the Alban axes ; now the Scythians beg replies from us, though lately 
haughty, and the Indians too. 

Now Faith, and Peace, and Honour, and antique Modesty, and 
neglected Virtue dares to return, and Plenty appears to view, rich 
with her o'erflowing horn. 

And may Augur Apollo, adorned with flashing bow, and. dear 
to the Muses nine, he who raises up by his health-giving art the 
body's exhausted limbs, if he graciously beholds the heights of the 
Palatine hill, ever prolong the Roman state, and Latium in happi- 
ness, to another lustre and a better age. 

And may Diana, who possesses Aventinus and Algidus, hearken 
to the supplications of the Fifteen Men, and lend propitious ears to 
the children's prayers. 

That Jove and all the gods confirm these vows, I bear back home 
a good and stedfast hope, I, a chorister trained to rehearse the 
praises of Phoebus and Diana. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE EPODES. 



An Epode is defined to be the third part of an ode ; and again, as 
the short line following an iambic verse, used by Archilochus and 
Horace: but the name "Epode" was not, we may be sure, used by 
Horace himself. The Delphin Editor professes his ignorance of 
the reason of the name ; he thinks that perhaps the Epodes were 
so called by some later grammarian, as being placed, in the editions 
of Horace, next to the Odes. Horace himself calls them in his 
Epistles "Parian Iambics;" that is, Iambics after the manner of 
Archilochus of Paros. In the 16th Ode of the first book he is 
thought by some to allude to them under the name of "swift 
Iambics," which he had written in the fervour of pleasant youth, 
and for which in jest he professes his repentance. From his boast 
that he was the first to introduce them into Latium, it would seem 
that Horace published them in his lifetime, rather than that they 
were collected and published after his death, as Walckenaer says. 
Orelli and others have fixed 30 B. C. for the date of their publication, 
when Horace was thirty five years old. Probably by this positive 
assertion no more is meant than that none of these Epodes have any 
internal evidence of a later date. They were all, like the Odes, written 
on particular occasions, addressed to particular friends, or were attacks 
on certain enemies; thus they would become more or less known 
one by one ; that these Epodes were the poems which the necessities 
of "a bold poverty" drove Horace to write, it is impossible to say 
for certain. 

However, that they were written by Horace while still young 
cannot be doubted. If Horace alludes to them in the Odes under 
the name of "swift Iambics", then he expressly says that he tried 
his hand on their composition in the vehemence of his impetuous 
youth. The date of several of them is more or less evident from 
the nature of the subject. Thus the 1st Epode refers either to the 
expedition against Sextus Pompeius, B. C. 35, or to the preparations 
against Antony before the battle of Actium, five years later. Earlier 
still would be the date of the 7th and the famous 16th Epode, 
perhaps the most beautiful of all the Epodes, if, as has been usually 
thought, they allude to the Perusian war, which followed almost 
directly after the battle of Philippi. Horace was then only 24 or 25 
years old. After the battle of Cannae, some of the Romans, consider- 
ing that all was lost, proposed that Italy should be abandoned : 
so -Horace, lamenting that the civil wars had brought that to pass 



9 o HORACE. 



which no foreign enemies could do, declares in this 16th Epode 
that the time was now come for all true-hearted Romans to seek 
another and better home. The description of the beauty of the 
Fortunate Islands is very poetical ; but the effect of the whole Epode 
is spoilt by the disproportionate length of this part of the poem ; 
if the account of the peace and fertility of the distant islands had 
been more carefully contrasted with the wars and troubles of Italy, 
the Epode would have been finer. We can hardly doubt that, if 
this poem had been written later by Horace, he would have given 
it that polish and compression to which he afterwards attached so 
high, perhaps too high a value. The same diffuseness of description 
appears in the 2nd Epode. But diffuseness was no fault of Horace 
in his later days. When Niebuhr says that the most poetical time of 
Horace was in his youth, it is hard to know what he means ; 
certainly, if happiness and finish of expression are important elements 
of the Horatian poetry, it is impossible to agree with the historian 
of Rome. About the same time that he wrote the above-mentioned 
Epodes, Horace wrote the 4th Epode against Menas, a freedman 
and lieutenant of Sextus Pompeius, who was a double traitor. 
Augustus rewarded his treachery, so that Horace appears to show 
much courage in attacking him. It is true, as Wieland and Niebuhr 
say, that Horace deserves the reproach of a flatterer less than Virgil. 
In the flattery of Horace there is always a certain amount of inde- 
pendence. The date of the 9th Epode cannot be mistaken. With 
it we may of course compare the 37th Ode of the 1st book, a much 
finer poem. This Epode alludes clearly to the defeat of Sextus 
Pompeius, the so-called son of Neptune, to Cleopatra and her court, 
to the battle of Actium, and the retreat of the hostile ships. It was 
was written when Horace was 34 years old. The 14th Epode is 
supposed to allude to Terentia the wife of Maecenas, to whom she 
was afterwards the cause of so much unhappiness. Whether it does 
so or not, it proves that the friendship between the poet and his 
patron was by this time intimate. To fix the date of some of the 
Epodes, as that for instance which upbraids Neaera with her want 
of faith, would seem to be quite arbitrary. But none of the Epodes 
have any allusions which refer to the later years of Horace's life. And 
perhaps we may say that they are all marked by a style of compara- 
tive youth. Hardly any of them have that terseness and refinement 
which characterise the Odes and Epistles. And many of them, as 
those about Canidia, Maevius, Cassius, are marked by a virulence of 
expression, not unnatural at a time when Horace's prospects were 
gloomy, on his return to Rome after the battle of Philippi; but 
from which he freed himself in his later writings, as a prosperous 
and contented man of the world, still more as one taught by divine 
philosophy to become gentler and better with the advance of old 
age. The Epodes are chiefly written in Iambic verses, the metre 
used by Archilochus in his satires. The Iambics are not always 
of the same number of feet, and are diversified by being sometimes 
joined to hexameter or to half-elegiac verses. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE EPODES. gj 

Lord Lytton rightly considers the Epodes as a link between the 
earlier Satires and the Odes. Some of them approach nearer to 
Satires, some are more akin to Odes. Thus the 6th is an Epode of 
which it cannot be said that it is free from the spirit of Archilochus. 
The nth on the other hand is an Ode of great beauty, probably 
taken pretty closely from some Greek original, now no longer extant. 
The 13th Epode is one of the same character. Again, some of the 
Epodes have a mixture of poetry and satire in them. Thus, when 
Horace sings of the charms of the country which he loved so well, 
in tones evidently genuine, not ironical, the expression of a true 
affection, not of a passing fancy, he is pleased to give a touch of satire 
at the end, by pretending that the speaker is an usurer, whose real 
interest in life is gain. The least pleasing of the Epodes are those 
connected with Canidia. Horace appears in them as a second 
Archilochus, in a temper and spirit alien from his own kindly nature, 
armed by rage with suitable Iambics. The 8th*Satire, inferior to the 
other Satires, is also an attack on the same person, whose real name, 
as the scholiasts tell us, was Gratidia, a seller of perfumes at Naples. 
After all, we are unable to tell what so moved the anger of the 
kindly poet, or indeed, how much of his wrath was real. The last 
mention of Canidia is indirect, at the close of the Satires. 

Generally, no doubt, the Epodes are the least agreeable and the 
least striking of the writings of Horace ; compared with his other 
productions they are almost rough and unpolished ; the Satiric parts 
of them are very inferior to the Satires, almost in a different style 
and tone altogether ; the lyric parts fall far short of the excellence of 
the odes ; still, they give a picture of the times in which they were 
written ; they illustrate a particular portion of the life of the poet, the 
dark days of poverty and obscurity, and the time when he came into 
the notice of the great, and first obtained competency and fame ; 
they breathe the spirit of patriotism and independence ; in places 
they have many touches of beauty, are as vigorous as any of his 
writings, and are interesting as containing the signs of those gifts 
which have made the name of Horace dear to many a reader. 



THE EPODES. 



Horace expresses his readiness to accompany Maecenas to any part 
of the world, and especially on the expedition here spoken of. He 
is influenced by the disinterested feeling of gratitude to his 
benefactor. 

You will go, my friend, with the Liburnian galleys amidst the tall 
turreted ships, prepared, Maecenas, to undergo every danger of 
Caesar, and make it all your own. What am I to do, I to whom life 
is sweet while you live, otherwise a burden? Shall I, as bidden, follow 
the path of ease not pleasant save in your company, or shall I endure 
this toil with the spirit that becomes a manly soul? Yes, endure it I 
will, and you either o'er the Alpine summits, and the inhospitable 
Caucasus, or even to the furthest bay of the West will I follow with 
brave spirit. You may ask, how can I lighten your toil by mine, I 
who lack strength for wars ? I reply, my alarms in your society will 
be less, for fear possesses us more in absence ; even as the bird, that 
tends her brood of unfledged young, dreads the stealthy approach of 
the serpent more if she has left them, not that, though she were in the 
nest, she could give more aid by her presence. Right gladly will I 
serve in this and every war for the hope of your favour, not that more 
oxen may be yoked to my laborious ploughs, nor that my cattle may 
change Calabrian for Lucanian pastures before the rising of the 
scorching dog-star, nor that my bright marble villa may reach the 
Circaean walls of Tusculum on the hill. Enough and more than 
enough has your bounty enriched me; I care not to amass stores 
that I may bury them, like the miser Chremes, in the earth, or waste 
them, as a thriftless prodigal. 

II. 

The usurer A Iphius praises the charms of cotmtry life, its freedom 
from alarms and cares, its humble duties, simple fare, pleasant 
sights. But after all his love of money is too strong for his 
sentimental feelings. 

" Blest is the man who far away from business, as the antique race 
of mortals, tills his paternal farm with his own oxen, from all usurious 
dealings free : he is not startled by the fierce notes of the martial 
trump, nor shudders at the raging sea ; he shuns the forum and the 



III.] THE EPODES. 93 

insolent thresholds of citizens raised to high estate. So then, either 
he weds the full-grown shoots of the vine to the tall poplar, or in 
some retired dell gazes at the winding herds of lowing cattle, or, 
pruning with his hook unfruitful boughs, grafts in others more 
productive, or stores in clean jars the honey strained from the comb, 
or shears the tender sheep : or else, when Autumn lifts o'er the fields 
his head with a goodly crown of mellow fruit, how does he joy to 
pluck the pears he has grafted, or grape that vies with purple in its 
hue, meet present for thee, Priapus, or thee, Silvanus, guardian of his 
bounds ! As Fancy bids, he lies either beneath an ancient oak, or at 
times in the close grass ; meanwhile, within deep banks glide on the 
streams, the birds make their plaint in woods, and fountains splash 
with jets of water clear; all sounds to invite light slumbers. But 
when the wintry season of thundering Jove gathers its rains and snows, 
then with his pack of hounds he drives from either side the fierce 
boars into the nets that stop their course, or on smooth pole stretches 
the fine-meshed nets, snares to entrap the greedy thrush, and captures 
in the noose the timorous hare or foreign crane, the pleasant prizes 
of the chase. Midst scenes like these who does not forget the painful 
cares attendant on love ? But should a chaste wife give her share of 
help to bless his home and dear children, true as Sabine matron, or 
sunburnt wife of industrious Apulian swain, as she piles up on the 
holy hearth logs of seasoned wood to greet the return of the tired 
master, or as she pens up within the close- woven hurdles the joyous 
flock, milking their full udders, or, bringing forth from the sweet cask 
this year's wine, prepares the unbought meal : then the Lucrine fish 
would not please me more, nor turbot, nor scar, that storm roaring 
upon the Eastern waves may drive to our sea ; the African bird is not 
more pleasant to my palate, nor the Ionian moor-fowl, than olive 
picked from the choicest boughs of the trees, or herb of sorrel that 
loves the meadow, or mallow that gives health to the oppressed body, 
or lamb slain at the feast of the god of bounds, or kid saved from the 
fangs of the wolf. During these repasts, how joyous the sight of well- 
fed sheep hastening home, of tired oxen bringing the inverted plough- 
share on their drooping necks, and the home-born slaves of the 
wealthy house, like a swarm of bees, ranged round the Lares shining 
in the fire-light ! " Such were the words of the usurer Alphius; he was 
just on the point of turning rustic ; he got in all his money on the 
Ides ; when the Calends come, he wants to put it out again. 

III. 
Horace in this epode addressed to Maecenas expresses his humorous 
horror of garlic. 
May the man, whoe'er he be, that with unnatural hand has stran- 
gled his aged father, eat garlic, herb more noxious than hemlock! Ye 
reapers, oh how tough are your stomachs ! What is this poison 
raging in my entrails ? Was blood of vipers boiled in these herbs, 
and I knew it not? or did Canidia's hand dress this cursed dish? 
When Medea admired beauteous Jason above all the Argonauts, 



94 HORACE. [IV. V. 

with the juice of garlic she anointed all his body, as he went to yoke 
the untried oxen ; in garlic her gift was steeped, when on her rival she 
took her vengeance, and then fled on car of winged snakes. Ne'er 
yet on thirsty Apulia settled such heat of dog-star, nor did the present 
sent to Hercules the doer burn with greater fury on his shoulders. 
But you, Maecenas, full of your jokes, if e'er you fancy such a herb as 
this, may your mistress put up her hand to stop your lip, and lie at 
the end of the couch ! 

IV. 

An attack upon a man of low birth, who gave hii7ts elf great airs on 
account of his having been made 7nilitary tribune. 
As is the natural antipathy between wolves and lambs, such is mine 
to you, with your back galled by Iberian cords, and your legs by hard 
fetters. Strut insolent in your wealth: money changes not birth. As 
with measured gait you walk in the Sacred Way, clad in toga six ells 
broad, can you not see how that all passing either way turn their 
faces in undisguised indignation? "Why! this is the man lashed by 
the triumvirs' rods even to the disgust of the common crier, but now 
he ploughs a thousand acres of Falernian land, and with his nags 
wears the Appian way, and sits in the front rows, magnificent knight, 
braving Otho's law. What boots it then that so many ships, pointed 
with beaks of ponderous weight, should sail against pirates and bands 
of slaves, when this man, even this, is tribune of the soldiers ?" 



V. 

The piteous lamentation of a boy of noble birth, doomed to die by a 

lingering death, that thence may be made a love potion to be 

administered to Varus, who had been faithless to Canidia. She is 

held up at once to ridicule and execration. Compare Epode ij and 

Satire 8 in Book I, probably both written about the same time. 

" But, oh ye Powers of heaven, ruling the earth and race of man, 

what bodes this scene tumultuous? Or why are all your faces turned 

so fiercely on me alone? I pray you by your children, if ever Lucina 

came to your call at real birth-pains, by this my purple stripe which 

graces me for nought, by Jove who will surely rebuke deeds like 

these, why on me do you gaze, as a stepmother, or as wild beast 

assailed by iron weapons?" Uttering such wailings from the quivering 

mouth, stood there the boy stripped of his ornaments, a tender frame, 

such as might soften the impious hearts of Thracians ; meanwhile 

Canidia, her locks entwined with short snakes, and head dishevelled, 

bids burn in magic flames wild fig-trees torn from graves, and 

cypresses, funereal trees, and eggs smeared with blood of hideous 

toad, and feathers of screech-owl, bird of night, and herbs Iolcos 

sends, and Iberia fruitful in drugs, and bones snatched from the teeth 

of starving bitch. Then Sagana, with vest tucked up, sprinkles o'er 

all the house waters of lake Avernus, her hair erect, as the sea-urchin 

bristles rough, or running boar. But Veia checked by no remorse 

began to throw up the ground with sturdy mattock, that in a pit the 






VI.] THE EPODES. 95 

boy might pine away, gazing on the food changed twice or thrice 
during the weary day; with face prominent as far as bodies 
poised upon the chin rise above the water ; for his dried marrow and 
shrivelled liver were to make a love potion, so soon as his eyeballs 
had withered away, fixed on the forbidden food. That Folia of 
Ariminum was not absent then is the belief of Naples, city of leisure, 
and of each neighbouring town ; she by Thessalian song plucks 
from the sky the enchanted stars and moon. Then savagely Canidia 
gnaws with her yellow tooth the uncut nail of her thumb ; what said 
she then ? or what forbore to say? "Hail each of you," she cried, "no 
unfaithful arbitresses to my deeds, thou, Night, and thou, Hecate, 
queen of silence during the sacred mysteries ; now, e'en now be here, 
now on this hostile house your wrath and power direct. Whilst in 
the awful woods the beasts lie hid, relaxed in pleasant sleep, may the 
dogs of the Subura howl at the adulterous old man, that all may 
laugh at him smeared with such spikenard, so that more perfect 
never my hands prepared. — But what has happened? why have my 
poisons, worthy of Colchian Medea, lost their power? With drugs such as 
these she vengeance took on her haughty rival, child of great Creon, 
then fled:. that day the robe, a gift in venom steeped, destroyed the 
bride in a sheet of fire. Surely no herb or root concealed in savage 
haunts has escaped my search! He sleeps on couches smeared with 
oblivion of all my rivals. But ah! he walks at large, free through the 
charm of some more learned sorceress. Yet by no common potion, 
Varus, O soul doomed to suffer much, shall you come hastening back 
to me; no Marsian enchantments shall recall your reason: a draught 
more potent I will prepare, and mix it stronger for your disdainful 
heart ; and sooner shall the heavens sink beneath the sea, while the 
earth is spread above, than you not burn with my love, as this bitumen 
burns in black fires." Hereupon the boy no more, as he had done, 
essays to soothe the impious hags with gentle prayer, but, at a loss how 
to break silence, yet uttered Thyestean curse: " Magic drugs," he cried, 
" can confound the power of right and wrong, they cannot avert the 
retribution due to mortal deeds ; with curses I will pursue you, the 
curses of hate no victims will atone. Nay when, as you ordain, I 
have breathed forth my life, I will, as a spirit of Frenzy, haunt you in 
the night ; in ghostly • form I will attack your faces with crooked 
talons ; such is the power of the Manes, those gods below ; as night- 
mare sitting on your restless breasts I will with panic scare away 
your sleep. From street to street on all sides the crowd pursuing 
will stone you to death, ye unclean hags, and last of all your unburied 
limbs shall be torn by wolves and birds of the Esquiline hill. My 
parents alas ! survive my death, but surely shall be witnesses of this 
1 sight." 

VI. 

Addressed to one who slandered the defeitceless. Horace assitres him 

that he can and will defend himself 

Why trouble innocent strangers, like a dog cowardly against the 

wolf? Why not turn on me, if you dare, your idle menaces, and attack 



96 HORACE. [VII. IX. 

one ready to bite in return? I will pursue you, even as Molossian 
hounds, or tawny dogs of Sparta's breed, a power that befriends the 
shepherds, prick up their ears, and drive through the deep snow 
whatever beast runs before them : you with tremendous bayings fill 
the wood, then snuff the food thrown to you. Beware, beware : 
against the bad I am all roughness, and ready with uplifted horn, like 
him rejected as son-in-law by faithless Lycambes, or as Bupalus' fierce 
foe. What! shall I, attacked by the tooth of malice, weep like 
helpless boy? 

VII. 

The blood of Remus slam by his brother is atoned for by the blood of 
his descendants in civil war. 

" Whither, whither rush ye, a guilty race? Why do your hands grasp 
swords but lately sheathed ? Has then too little Latin blood been 
shed on the plains and o'er Neptune's realms, not that Rome might 
burn the haughty towers of rival Carthage, or that the Briton as yet 
untouched by war might walk in chains along the Sacred Slope; but 
that, as Parthians would pray, our city should fall by its own act? 
E'en wolves and lions have not such a nature, savage indeed, but not 
against their kind. Is it blind frenzy, or some fiercer power, or sin that 
drives you on? Reply." Speechless are they, and a sickly pallor 
discolours their countenance, and their minds are stricken with stupor, 
E'en so it is : Rome is pursued by bitter fates, and the guilt of a 
brother's murder, from the day there was shed upon the ground the 
blood of innocent Remus bringing a curse upon his descendants. 

IX. 

Addressed to Maecenas, as is supposed, after the news of the battle oj 
Actium had reached Ro?ne, B.C. 31. 

W T hen shall I quaff in joy for Caesar's victory the Caecuban wine 
reserved for holyday repasts, with you, O blest Maecenas, beneath 
your lofty roof; a duty Jove accepts ; while sounds the lyre in unison 
with the flutes, as they give the Phrygian, it the Dorian strain? E'en as 
of late, when driven from the straits fled Neptune's son, the Captain, 
after his ships were burnt, and he had threatened Rome with those 
bonds, which, friend of faithless slaves, he had taken from their hands. 
A Roman soldier alas! (but ye, posterity, will refuse belief,) sold 
into slavery to a woman, carries stakes and arms, and stoops to serve 
wrinkled eunuchs, and midst war's standards the sun beholds the 
disgrace of an awning. Then to our side two thousand Gauls wheeled 
their neighing steeds, in chorus singing Caesar; and the sterns of the 
hostile ships, rowed backwards to the left, lie hidden in the harbour. 
Io Triumphe ! Why delayest thou the car of gold, and heifers never 
yoked? Io Triumphe! So great a captain thou didst not bring back 
from the Jugurthine war, not so great returned Africanus, to whom 
upon the ruins of Carthage Valour raised a monument. By land and 
sea the enemy defeated has doffed his purple cloak, and now is clad 



X. XL '..] THE EPODES. 97 

in mourning ; he is carried either to Crete, isle famed for a hundred 
towns, by gales that bless him not, or sails for the Syrtes troubled by 
Notus, or is borne by capricious waves. Bring hither, boy, cups of a 
larger size, and wine of Chios or Lesbos, or mix for us Caecuban to 
stay our qualmish sickness. I joy to drown my care and fear for 
Caesar's fortunes in sweet cups of the god who frees the soul. 



hi this Epode, the opposite of Ode 3, Book 1, Horace expresses Ms 
hope that a storm may overtake Maevius and drown him in the 
sea. 

With evil omens from its mooring sails the ship freighted with 
noisome Maevius : forget not, Auster, to lash either side of the vessel 
with rough billows ! Let black Eurus upheave the main, and tear the 
rigging and scatter the shivered oars ; let Aquiio rise as mighty as 
when are snapped the quivering oaks on the high mountains ; nor 
any friendly star appear on the dark night, when sets the grisly Orion ; 
and may he be borne o'er waters as tumultuous, as those which troubled 
the victorious Grecian host, when Pallas turned her wrath from the ashes 
of Troy on the ship of impious Ajax ! How soon shall your mariners 
be bathed in sweat, and how sickly shall be your pallor ! Unmanly are 
your wailing cries, and prayers from which Jove turns his face, when 
the Ionian bay shall roar with the rainy Notus, and break your keel. 
But if your body lies on the winding shore, a rich prey to gladden the 
birds of the sea, then to the Tempests I will offer a lusty goat and 
lamb. 

XL 

Horace tells his friend Pettius he cannot write verses, as once, for 
Lovers ha7id is upon him, and the remedies of love are uncertain. 

I feel no heart, as once, friend Pettius, to write tender verses, smitten 
as I am by grievous love, by love, who singles me out of all for his 
flames' to burn me. This is the third December, which shakes the 
glory from the woods, since my mad passion for Inachia ceased. 
Woe is me, throughout the city — I am ashamed of such ill-doing 
— was I the talk of all. And for those banquets I must grieve, where 
dull spirits, and silence, and sighs drawn deep betrayed the lover. " Is 
the honest genius of a poor man no match for gold?" So used I to 
make my appeal to your sympathy, when I was heated with more 
generous wine, and the god who knows not reserve had drawn my 
secrets forth. "But now that anger surges in my soul so free, that to 
the winds it scatters these thankless remedies, which bring no relief 
to my sore wound, my shame is gone, and I shall cease to vie with 
unworthy rivals." Such was the course I praised with virtuous words 
when in your presence: you bid me go back home ; but my wavering 
feet bore me to doors alas ! unfriendly, and to thresholds, woe is me !, 
how hard ! against which I bruised my loins and side. 

HOR. 7 



9 8 HORACE. [XIII— XV. 

XIII. 

While nature is stormy without, let friends be joyous within. Life 
is short and full of troubles, but has its pleasures and alleviations. 

The heavens frown with rough weather, and Jove is downward drawn 
with rain and snow ; now seas, then woods war with the Thracian 
blasts ; let' us, my friends, snatch our opportunity from the present 
day, and whilst our limbs are vigorous still, and joy becomes us, let 
age be cleared from off our clouded brow. Bring you forth the 
wine made when Torquatus was consul in my natal year. Care not 
to speak of aught beside : God perchance will settle back in peace 
our lot by kindly change. To-day right joyously I bedew myself 
with Achsemenian nard, and on the lyre of Mercury lighten my heart 
of dreaded cares ; even as the noble Centaur sang to his tali pupil 
" Mortal .child x>f immortal Thetis, for you, destined to be invincible, 
waits the land of Assaracus, which the cool streams of little Scaman- 
der and rolling Simois divide; unalterable is the woof by which the 
Fates have cut off. your return ; never shall your azure mother bear 
you home ; when there, you must lighten every toil by wine and song, 
the two sweet comforters of unsightly sorrow." 

XIV. 

Addressed to Maecenas -to excuse himself for not having completed a 
long-promised poem. 

Maecenas, true friend, you will be the death of me, if you ask so 
often, why a soft indolence has spread itself into my inmost soul, as 
though with thirsty throat I had drained cups inducing Lethaean 
.slumbers : a god, yes, a god forbids my bringing to the finishing point 
the iambics I began, my long promised poem. Not otherwise, 'tis 
said, Anacreon of Teos loved Samian Bathyllus, and oft on hollow 
shell mourned for his passion, in measures freely flowing. You 
yourself are burning woefully ; but if no brighter beauty kindled with 
fire beleaguered Troy, rejoice in your lot: I am racked by love of 
Phryne, a freedwoman, a mistress not content with a single admirer. 

XV. 

Horace complains of the broken faith of one Neaera, who had aban- 
doned him for a wealthier rival, and he warns him that he will 
meet with the same perfidy. 

'Twas night, in cloudless sky the moon was shining amid the lesser 
stars, when you, fearing not to profane the divinity of the great gods, 
swore to the oath that I dictated ; and clinging to me with twining 
arms, closer than tall oak is embraced by ivy, vowed that whilst 
wolves are the enemies of sheep, and Orion, the disturber of the 
stormy sea, is the dread of sailors, whilst wave in the breeze the flow- 
ing locks of Apollo, so long my love should be returned. But ah ! 



XVI.] THE EPODES. 99 

Neaera, destined are you to grieve through my resolution ; for if in 
Flaccus there be aught of manhood, he will not brook that you ever 
to a rival give your hours, and, angry with you, will look for one who 
will return his love. Nor will his resolve give way to your beauty 
which has once displeased him, if settled wrath has passed into his 
soul. And you, whoe'er you be, happier now, who shew yourself so 
proud at my expense, rich you may be in flocks and many an acre, 
for you Pactolus may flow with gold, and known to you perhaps are 
the mysteries of Pythagoras, the seer born to many a life, in beauty 
you may surpass Nireus ; yet with sighs shall you mourn her love 
transferred elsewhere, and I in turn shall laugh. 

XVI. 

I — 13. Describes the threatened ruin of Rome by civil wars, 

A second age is now wearing away in civil wars, and Rome by her 
own act is falling through her own strength. The city, which neither 
the neighbouring Marsians had power to destroy, nor Tuscan troops 
of menacing Porsena, nor the rival valour of Capua, nor Spartacus 
fierce in war, nor the Allobroges faithless in days of change ; the city 
unsubdued by wild Germany with its blue-eyed warriors, or by 
Hannibal, name a.bhorred by parents; this city we shalL ourselves 
destroy, an impious age whose blood is doomed, and again wild beasts 
shall be the lords of the soil. A conquerer and barbarian, alas ! shall 
trample on our ashes, and the horsemen strike our city's streets with 
echoing hoof; and insolently scatter (oh unholy sight !) the bones of 
Quirinus, sheltered now from wind and sun. 

15 — 40. An exhortation to his coimtrymen to bind themselves by 
oath to a voluntary and perpetual exile. 

Perchance all in common, or at least the better-minded part of 
you, are consulting how best to escape from woeful troubles. Let no 
opinion be preferred to this ; even as the state of Phocaea's people 
fled into exile, bound by a solemn curse ; as they left their fields and 
own sacred homes and their shrines to ' be a dwelling-place for wild 
boars and ravening wolves ; to go whither feet can carry, whither o'er 
the billows Notus invites or wanton Africus. Is this your pleasure? 
or has any one better advice to give? Why delay at once to embark 
with propitious omens? But let this be our form of oath : "As soon as 
stones lifted from the lowest depths swim on the surface, then to 
return may not be a sin ; that we need not repent setting our sails 
homeward on the day that the Po washes Matinum's peaks, or the 
lofty Apennine juts into the sea, and a wondrous love forms monstrous 
unions with strange passion, so that tigers may gladly pair with stags, 
and the dove mate with the kite, and trusting cattle lose their dread 
of glaring lions, and the he-goat, now smooth, haunt the briny main." 
To such oaths as these, and others like them, that may cut off a return to 

7—2 



HORACE. [XVII. 



clear home let us bind ourselves, and go, the whole state, or the part 
wiser than the crowd who will not learn ; let the craven and despair- 
ing still press their ill-starred beds ; but you of a manly spirit away 
with womanish sorrow, and wing your voyage beyond the Tuscan 
shores. 

41 — 66. A full description of the happy isles. 

Us Ocean waits, that wanders round the world ; let us speed to the 
fields, the blessed fields, and to the isles of wealth, where Earth un- 
ploughed supplies her corn each year, and ever flourishes the unpruned 
vine, and the topmost bough of the olive shoots and never disap- 
points, and the dusky fig adorns its proper tree ; from hollow oak 
flows honey, lightly the rill with tinkling foot bounds down the 
mountain heights. There the unbidden goats come to the pails, and 
the kindly flock brings back distended udders ; nor roars around the 
fold the evening bear, nor does the deep soil heave with vipers. 
More too in our bliss we shall admire ; how that watery Eurus ne'er 
sweeps the fields with drenching showers, nor are the seeds rich in 
promise scorched in the arid earth, as the king of the heavenly 
Powers tempers either extreme. Hither sped not the ship Argo with 
her rowers, the shameless Medea set not foot here, nor did sailors 
of Sidon turn sail-yards hitherward, nor Ulysses' toilsome crew. No 
ill contagion hurts the cattle, the burning violence of no star scorches 
the flock. Jove set apart those shores for a pious race, when he 
debased the days of gold with brass ; when he hardened the ages with 
brass, and then with iron ; from which an auspicious flight is granted 
to the pious, with jme for their seer. 

XVII. 

1 — 52. Horace represents himself as entreating. Canidia for mercy. 
He retracts -the charges he had made against her^ in an ironical 
recantation. 

Now, now to witchcraft's workings I surrender, and humbly 
beseech by Proserpine's realms, by Hecate's powers not lightly to be 
provoked, and by the magic books able to unfix the stars and call 
them down from heaven, Canidia, forbear at last your charms of 
imprecation, and unroll backwards, unroll your rapid wheel. Telephus 
to pity moved the grandson of Nereus, though in his pride he had 
marshalled against him the Mysian lines, and hurled his pointed 
spears. The matrons of Troy anointed the body of Hector the 
slayer of heroes, when doomed to wild birds and dogs, after that the 
king went forth from the city, and threw himself, sad sight, at the 
feet of the obstinate Achilles. The toilsome mariners of Ulysses 
stripped their limbs of rough bristling hides, for so consented Circe ; 
then reason and speech returned to them gradually, and the familiar 
grace of the human countenance. Enough and more than enough is the 
atonement I have paid to you, sweetheart of many a boatman and 
huckster. My youthful look is gone, the hue of modesty has left my 
bones clad now with yellow skin ; my hair is grey through your 



XVII.] THE EPODES. 



101 



ointments, no ease succeeds my toil to give me rest ; night follows 
close on day, and day on night, nor can I relieve the tightened 
breathing of my chest. So then, wretched man that I am, I am 
forced to believe a truth I once denied, that Sabine enchantments 
can trouble the heart, and Marsian chants can split the head. What 
would you more? O sea! O earth! I burn, as ne'er burned Hercules 
smeared with the poisoned blood of Nessus, nor the undying Sicilian 
flame in glowing ^Etna; but till I am reduced to dry cinders and borne 
by insulting winds, you glow like crucible with Colchian drugs. What 
end awaits me now? what payment can I make? Declare; impose 
your penalty, with good faith will I pay it, ready to make atonement 
should you name a hecatomb of bullocks, or from my lying lute 
demand a song, how chaste you are, yes you, how honest ; so shall 
you range among the stars, a golden constellation. Castor and the 
brother of great Castor, offended on account of Helen defamed, yet, 
overcome by prayer, restored the bard his eyesight taken from him. 
And you, (for you have power,) free me from my frenzy, you, a woman 
disgraced by no shame of father, you, no hag skilled to scatter the 
ashes on the ninth day among the graves of the poor. You surely 
have a heart kind to strangers* your hands are pure, Pactumeius is 
your true son, and of your childbirth there is no doubt, whenever you 
come forth strong after your travail. 

53 — 8 1. Canidia is made to .speak as one who is deaf to Horace^ s 

prayers. 

Why do you pour forth prayers to stopped ears? The rocks are not 
deafer to the naked sailors, when wintry Neptune buffets them with 
dashing surge. What ! are you with impunity to divulge and deride 
the mysteries of Cotytto, the rites of Cupid unchecked by law, and 
unpunished to fill the city with my name, as though you were high- 
priest of witchcraft on the Esquiline hill? what then would be the 
good to have enriched Pelignian hags, and to have mingled poison 
full swift in its effects ? But no, a death more lingering than you pray 
for awaits you, and you must prolong a wretched thankless life only 
for this, that you may ever survive to bear fresh pains. So longs for 
rest the father of faithless Pelops, Tantalus craving ever for the 
bounteous repast ; so longs Prometheus to a vulture bound ; so longs 
Sisyphus to set the stone on the summit ; but Jove's laws forbid. At 
times you will wish to spring from lofty towers, anon to lay your 
breast bare with the Noric sword; in vain will you bind a noose 
around your throat in the despair of your sickening grief. Then 
shall I ride mounted on your hated shoulders, and the earth shall 
yield to my arrogance. I can give motion to images of wax, as your 
own prying eyes have seen, and from the sky my charms can pluck 
the moon, I can wake the dead from their ashes, and mix cups of 
pining love, and am I to lament the issue of my craft as unavailing 
against you? 



INTRODUCTION TO THE SATIRES. 



Many have written more or less fully on Roman satire, its origin, 
and history; as the elder Scaliger, Casaubon, Heinsius, Dacier, the 
learned husband of a more learned lady, Dryden, the Delphin editor 
of Juvenal, Ruperti, Gerlach, Walckenaer, and others. The origin of 
Satire, even if so many learned men had not fully discussed the 
subject, could hardly be doubtful or obscure. Satire arose, as poetry 
in general arose, from the rude devotion and festive revels of the 
rustics in days of old. The Greek plays, tragic and comic alike, had 
the same origin. Ceres and Bacchus were the teachers and inspirers 
of these rough and unlettered poets. Often have been quoted the 
standard passages of Virgil, Horace, and Tibullus, in which is 
described the worship of the stout swains of old, their rural songs, 
their alternate strains and boisterous raillery. It seems indeed a long 
way from the uncouth and extemporaneous effusions of these hus- 
bandmen at the end , of harvest to the highly-polished satires of 
Boileau and Pope; but it is a way easily followed; and, after all, the 
difference is more one of form and style than of real feeling. In the 
unshapen poetry of an early and uncivilized people, all styles and 
kinds are found mixed together, as yet undistinguished, in what may 
be called a formless and confused chaos; presently the various parts 
of poetry separate from one another, just as is the case in all things, 
in nature, in language, in society ; from the rustic gibe poured forth 
in alternate verse came the farces, then the plays of Livius Androni- 
cus ; whilst Ennius, amongst his other works, and after him Pacuvius, 
wrote compositions which they called Satires. These satires embraced 
all varieties of subjects, serious and gay, were composed in metres 
mingled together in the same poems, were like a dish laden with a 
medley of all sorts of food, (whence came the name "satire,") and 
contained fables, dialogues, allegories, precepts, description, eulogy, 
censure, ajl thrown together. They could not then have been alto- 
gether unlike the satires of Horace. 

And yet Lucilius passes for the inventor of Satire. In what 
particular points Lucilius differed from Ennius, and how he deserves 
the honourable name of "the inventor of Satire," it is hard to say. 
Indeed Quintilian only says that in Satire Lucilius first obtained dis- 
tinguished praise. Probably Lucilius first gave a regular form to 
Satire. It is likely, too, that his satires were a great advance in 
excellence on those of Ennius. He used chiefly the hexameter verse, 
and did not mingle together different metres in the same book, as 
Ennius did. Probably, too, his books had greater unity than those of 
Ennius, and less variety of incongruous matter. If so, his Satires 



INTRODUCTION TO THE SATIRES. I03 

would be a step forward, and less according to the original meaning 
of the name, but would approach nearer to the notion which the word 
Satire now conveys. 

Quintilian claims Satire as entirely Roman, and Horace speaks of 
it as a kind of writing untouched by the Greeks ; and yet in another 
place he says that Lucilius owes all to writers of the old Greek 
comedy. There is no contradiction in these statements. In form 
no doubt Satire is not Greek. The Greeks have nothing exactly 
like the Roman Satire. There is no Greek Horace, or Greek 
Juvenal. The writings of Archilochus, bitterer than gall, which are 
said to have driven those attacked by them to suicide, whatever may 
have really been their force and power, were doubtless more like 
lampoons than satires. They were attacks on particular persons, 
like some of the Epodes of Horace, and some of the less pleasing 
poems of Catullus. Whilst the Roman comedies of Terence were 
formed on the model of the new Greek comedy, the satires of Rome 
were like the old Greek comedy, in personality, wit, vigour, freedom. 

Horace appears to have given much offence by his remarks on the 
defects of Lucilius. Either it was orthodox to admire Lucilius, or 
the detractors of Horace were glad of a handle for attacking him. 
Quintilian says that some were such devoted admirers of Lucilius 
as to prefer him not only to other satirists, but to all other poets. 
He says that he holds a middle judgment between such admirers 
and the depredator Horace, who compares Lucilius to a muddy river. 
"For," says Quintilian, "there is in him an admirable erudition, 
freedom too, and an abundance of salt." Cicero long before 
had often mentioned Lucilius as erudite and polished, as one who 
wrote neither for the most learned, nor for the illiterate, as witty 
and free-spoken and ready. However, if we can judge at all by the 
fragments of Lucilius still preserved (which, though numerous, are 
all of them very short, and probably very corrupt), we should say 
that what Horace says of him is true, and in fact short of the truth. 

Like indeed to Horace was Lucilius in many points. Both served 
in wars in their early youth. As Horace lived on familiar and 
intimate terms with Augustus and Maecenas, so did Lucilius with 
Scipio and Lselius. Both poets were men of a free and independent 
character. It is, however, probable that Lucilius was much the 
severer and sharper critic of the two. Macrobius speaks of him as a 
keen and violent writer. Lactantius mentions him in conjunction 
with Lucian. Persius and Juvenal both speak of the way in which he 
scourged the vices of his times, whilst the same Persius describes 
Horace as moving laughter, and by his playful satire stealing into 
the hearts of his readers. Still Lucilius and Horace had many points in 
common. Horace was his own biographer, so was Lucilius. Both met 
with envy and jealousy, and defended themselves with vigour. Both 
set themselves up to criticize the writings of other authors. Horace's 
satires are full of dialogues. The same appears to have been the 
case with those of Lucilius. Avarice and extravagance were the 
vices which either satirist especially attacked. Both condemned the 



104 



HORACE. 



luxury that prevailed in their times, and themselves preferred a quiet 
and rural simplicity. Lucilius is supposed to have laughed at the 
pedantry of philosophers, as Horace afterwards did. Lucilius' journey 
to the shores of the Sicilian strait is said to be the model of Horace's 
journey to Brundusium. The journey of the earlier poet appears not 
to have been to accompany any great man, as Horace accompanied 
Maecenas, but to have been a tour of pleasure, after the same simple 
fashion in which Horace tells us he liked to travel. 

Yet in one point the two satirists were utterly different. Lucilius, 
as Horace tells us, and as we cannot help judging from the fragments 
of his verses still extant, was a rapid and careless writer, not so very 
far removed from the rude vine-dressers and early husbandmen of 
Italy. He regarded quality less than quantity, and, as though it were 
a great feat, would dictate two hundred verses in an hour, standing 
on one foot. Horace was careful and exact, never diffuse, considering 
and weighing each line ; he was, as Keightley says, the most elliptic 
of writers, in a language which is the most elliptic of languages. 
Lucilius was a clumsy and harsh writer ; but, if his thirty books of 
satires had come down to us, we should no doubt have had a faithful, 
if rough picture of the troublous and restless times in which he lived, 
of the advance of luxury in the republic, of the character of Scipio, . 
and of the manners of Lselius, much truer than that given in the 
dialogue of Cicero. We, who have the eighteen satires of Horace, 
know what we should have lost, if time had robbed us of them. They 
are far better to us than the pages of regular history. They let us 
into a thousand little things, of which history is ignorant or disdainful. 
However minutely Lucilius may .have described the society of his 
times, he could hardly have excelled Horace in this point, while the 
charm of Horace's style is his own and unrivalled. Finish and care 
are apt to make writings dull, as Massillon is said to have taken the 
life out of his sermons by continually retouching them. The finish of 
Boileau's writings gives them a certain tameness. But the marvel of 
Horace is, that, though he is so finished, he is never dull. All comes 
as fresh from him as if he spoke the utterances of a child of nature. 

"Satires," he calls these writings sometimes ; at other times he 
calls them "Discourses" (Sermones). And indeed they by no means 
answer to the idea of satires, as we now understand the word, but are 
more like easy conversations with himself and others. They are free 
from ill-will and malice. He has faithfully kept the promise he has 
made about this. They are good-natured. They contain a variety 
which is admirable. At times they are satires, direct or indirect, 
on particular persons, or in general, on avarice, ambition, profligacy, 
luxury, superstition, on the follies and foibles of mankind. But 
mingled with these attacks are all kinds of subjects. Thus, for 
instance, in his journey to Brundusium there is scarcely any satire, as 
we should call it. Up and down the satires he has plenty to say 
about his friends. He is no niggard of praise towards them. Dryden 
says of him, "Folly is his quarry, not vice." He is no set philosopher, 
as Persius was, no declaimer like Juvenal. He has much salt, little 



INTRODUCTION TO THE SATIRES. 



gall. His metaphors and figures are not strained, as those of Persius 
are. He has turns, sudden and unexpected, and never wearies by 
dwelling too Jong on one subject. He enlivens his writings by- 
dialogues inserted abruptly. He has little fables and similes and 
tales introduced quite naturally. He never speaks of himself as of a 
great author, and disarms criticism by the way in which he confesses 
his own faults and weaknesses. He appears to be writing easily, 
and as one who plays with literature, and for all that he is a consum- 
mate artist. If aught were omitted or transposed, the effect would be 
much marred. Many of his lines, from their point and brevity, have 
passed into proverbs. He takes care to end nearly every satire with 
a light jest, and lets himself fall gently before he closes. When he 
describes his good father, the education he had received, his daily 
life, the little troubles and inconveniences which ruffled the surface 
of a comfortable and contented existence, he is more charming than 
ever. 

Some satires, as the 9th of the 1st book, give a complete picture of 
a single event. The 2nd book is on the whole more powerful, but 
less easy and natural than the 1st, and one can see that Horace 
writes in the 2nd book with a certain amount of authority, and there 
is in it more satire, strictly so called, than in the 1st book. And yet 
the 6th satire in the 2nd book, which describes his simple happiness 
in the country, his bores and interruptions in the city, his easy 
conversation with his patron, and which ends with the story of the 
two mice, has hardly a word of satire in it. As Walckenaer says, in 
the sense which we now attach to satire, but which was not yet 
attached to it by the Romans even in the days of Augustus, it seems 
strange to give the name of Satire to a piece so full of elegance and 
gentleness, with no malice or ill-nature in it, no indignation or 
severity. In this satire we have the picture of a man modest, content, 
grateful, free from ambition, enjoying a happiness much more secure 
than that of the country mouse, (who is here the type of Horace,) 
when drawn against his better judgment from the country to town. 
The mouse living on the hill-side with its grove of trees represents to 
us the poet in his villa in the deep valley under the hill Lucretilis. 

Juvenal, the other great satirist of Rome, has often been compared 
with Horace. A great poet has compared them. Dryden, in his 
famous "Letter to the Earl of Dorset," called also "a Discourse on 
Satire," at great length and in brilliant language has given the 
reasons why he prefers Juvenal. He calls Horace more general and 
various, more copious in his instructions, one who insinuates virtue 
by familiar examples : but Juvenal, he says, is more vigorous and 
masculine, his expressions are more sonorous, his verse more nu- 
merous, his indignation more vehement, his spirit has more of the 
commonwealth of genius. A man of Dryden' s turn of mind would be 
sure to prefer Juvenal. A man like Boileau or Pope would be sure 
to set more store on Horace. Dryden himself, with much good 
sense and ingenuousness, allows that he prefers Juvenal, because he 
suits his own taste better. There can hardly be a greater contrast 



io6 HORACE. 



than that between the man of a delicately playful wit and gentle 
humour, and the man of fierce invective and rhetorical morality. Juve- 
nal owes nothing to Horace. He is one of the most original of writers. 
What is said of the want of originality in Latin poets certainly does 
not apply to Juvenal. His own indignation, and the depravity of the 
times in which his lot was cast, no study of any other writer, made 
him a satirist. He lived in days "bad for the man, good for the 
satirist." But he never can be a companion or familiar friend, as 
Horace is. For one edition of Juvenal it would be curious to know 
how many there have been of Horace. 

A more natural comparison is that between Horace's own satires 
and epistles. Now his satires are not altogether unlike letters, and his 
epistles are not quite unlike satires, at any rate satires in the sense in 
which Horace uses the word. Still there are contrasts. His satires 
were written in his earlier days, the epistles in his declining years. 
In the epistles he writes with greater authority than he ventures to 
assume in most of the satires. There is more spirit, life, vigour, 
versatility in the satires; in the epistles there is a more soft and 
gentle tone. The satires are more about his detractors, the epistles 
more about his friends. In the epistles there is less to offend modern 
notions of taste and feeling. The satires are written in a joyous spirit, 
which is tinged with melancholy in the epistles. The satires give 
us on the whole more pictures of life in general, of the state of 
Rome, of society, its habits, feasts and amusements, its jokes and 
rivalries : in the epistles we have more of a calm spirit. The epistles 
are nobler than the satires, and mark an improvement in the character 
of the poet. They have a more perfect finish, and are more refined 
and thoughtful. The sentences are shorter and rounder in their 
compass. Horace may be regarded, as Keightley says, as the in- 
ventor of the Poetic Epistle. If he had never written anything after 
the satires, we might have thought that nothing could have surpassed 
their characteristic charm ; but when we read the epistles, we may 
say that Horace has surpassed not others only, but himself also. 



SATIRES. BOOK I. 



I. 



I — 22. The general discontent of mankind is unreal, and might well 
irritate the good-natured gods. 

How comes it to pass, Maecenas, that no one lives contented with 
the lot which either choice has given him, or chance thrown in his 
way, while he admires the fortune of those who follow a different 
profession? "O ye happy traders! 5 ' says the soldier laden with the 
weight of years, whose strength is broken with hard toil. On the 
other hand the trader, as the south winds toss his ship, says: "A 
soldier's life is better; for how stands the case? the armies clash 
in battle ; in the turning-point of a short hour comes swift death, 
or victory and joy." The farmer's life is admired by him who 
is learned in the law and statutes, when at early cock-crowing his 
client comes knocking at his doors. The other, when having given 
bail he is dragged from the country to the town, loudly declares 
none to be happy but those living in town. Other instances of the 
same kind are so numerous, that they could tire out even loquacious 
Fabius. Not to delay you, hear the point of my argument. If some 
god were to say: "Lo,here I am to do what you want : you, sir, who 
a minute ago were a soldier, are to be a trader ; you, who just now 
were a lawyer, see, you are now a farmer ; there, change sides and 
characters as on the stage : away with you : but why do you stand 
still? Can they be unwilling to change? And yet they might be as 
happy as they fondly wish." What reason is there to prevent Jove 
in his anger puffing out his cheeks against them, and declaring that 
he will not be so weak for the future as to listen to their prayers ? 

23 — 40. A discontented avarice is reproved even by the brute 

creation. 

Further, that I may not, like a jester, joke as I go through the 
subject; (and yet a man while joking may surely tell the truth, as 
often schoolmasters give cakes to boys to wheedle them into willing- 
ness to learn their alphabet ;) however, let us put aside jokes and 
turn to serious things. Yon farmer, that turns up the earth with strong 
plough, this cheating landlord here, soldiers and sailors that boldly 
scour o'er every sea, declare that this is the meaning of their en- 
during such toil ; when they are old, they will retire into ease and 
security, having collected for themselves a small pittance; just as 
the ant (for this is their example), a creature little, but great in in- 
dustry, drags with its mouth all it can, and adds to the heap it 



loS HORACE. |(. i. 

raises, an animal not ignorant or improvident of the future; but 
she, as soon as Aquarius saddens the inverted year, creeps out in 
no direction, but uses her store, a wise creature : whereas, neither by 
torrid heat, nor by winter, fire, water, sword, can you be turned aside 
from gain, finding no obstacle to stop you, if only your neighbour 
be not richer than you. 

41 — 60. What is the use of unemployed money? Enough is a feast. 
Great wealth is useless, and da?igerous too. 

What pleasure is there so stealthily deep in a hole of the earth 
timorously to hide an immense weight of gold and silver? "Ah," says 
the miser, "because, if I lessen it, it will at last be reduced to a 
worthless penny." "But unless," I reply, " you do so lessen it, what is 
the charm of this heap piled so high? Suppose your floor has 
threshed out a hundred thousand bushels of corn, will your stomach 
on that account hold more than mine? just as if it so happened 
that you among the slaves carried the bag full of loaves on your 
laden shoulder, you would not therefore receive more than he who 
carried nothing. Or say, what odds does it make to him who lives 
within the bounds of nature, whether he farms a hundred or a 
thousand acres? But you will say, 'Ah, 'tis pleasant to take from a 
large heap.' Nay, but so long as you let us take as much from our 
little, why should you praise your granaries more than our tiny 
bins? It is as if you wanted a pitcher- full or a glass-full of water, 
and were to say : ' I had rather take this quantity from a great river, 
than from this little well;' the natural result is, that those who take 
delight in an unreasonable quantity are carried off with the bank, 
and hurried down by the impetuous Aufidus ; whilst he who wants 
just as little as is needful neither draws up muddy water, nor loses 
his life in the swollen stream." 

61 — 91. The miser has a wretched kind of self applause; but he, like 
Tantalus, is never satisfied; he knows not the real use of mo7iey, 
lives in dread, is lonely in sickness, meets with no love, even from 
relations. 

But a large part of mankind are deceived by a vain covetous- 
ness, and say one never can have enough, for that money is the 
measure of worth. Now what can you do with such a man, but 
bid him go and be wretched, since he has a fancy so to be? As 
of a certain man at Athens it is told that he, being rich and mean, 
used to despise the hootings of the people thus: "The people, they 
hiss me, but I, I applaud myself at home, as soon as I contem- 
plate my coins in my chest." Thirsty Tantalus catches at the 
streams as they fly from his lips. You laugh ; why so? change but 
the name, and of you the tale is told: you heap up money-bags 
collected from all quarters, you sleep on them, gape over them, you 
are compelled to spare them, as though fhey were holy, or to take 
the pleasure in them that you would, in pictures. Do you not know 
the good of money, the end it serves ? Why, buy bread with it, vege- 



I. i.] THE SATIRES. 



tables, a pint of wine, in addition, such things as nature suffers pain, 
if bereaved of. What, to be wide awake half dead through fear, 
night and day to live in dread of rascally thieves, fire, your slaves, 
lest they plunder you and run away, is this so delightful? Of such 
goods as these may I ever be utterly destitute ! But if your body, 
attacked by a chill, becomes full of pain, or any accident confines 
you to your bed, have you any one to sit by you, get your fomen- 
tations ready, entreat the doctor to raise you up, and restore you 
to your children and affectionate relations? No, your wife does not 
want you to get well, nor does your son; all hate you, even your 
acquaintance, boys and girls alike. Can you wonder, when you put 
money above all else, that no one shews you the affection you de- 
serve not? What, if you choose to retain and keep the affection 
of those relatives given you by nature with no trouble of your own, 
would you then be so unlucky as to lose your labour? Would not that 
be like training a donkey to run as a racer on the Campus Martius, 
obedient to the bit? 

92 — 100. Set bounds to your desires. There are other evils besides 
poverty, as Ummidius found. 

In short, put bounds to your pursuit of wealth, and, as you have 
amassed more, so dread poverty less, lest your end be that of a cer- 
tain Ummidius — it is a short story — so rich was he, that he measured, 
not counted his money ; so mean was he, that he dressed no better than 
a slave, to his last hour he lived in perpetual dread of actual starva- 
tion : not so came his end, for his freed-woman cleft him through with 
an axe ; she was as brave as any Clytemnestra. 

101 — 107. Do you, then, advise me to be a spendthrift? No, not so; 
surely hi all things there is a mean. 

What then, sir, is your advice? to live like spendthrift Msenius, or 
the gourmand Nomentanus? Not so: why, you proceed to set con- 
traries against contraries face to face : when I say, Be not a miser, I 
do not say, Be a worthless prodigal. There is a mean between 
Tanais and the father-in-law of Visellius. There is a mean in 
all things ; in short there are fixed limits, beyond which on either side 
truth and right cannot be found. 

108 — 120. The miser is never conte?ited, always envious, thinks 
only of those richer than himself can never say, no, not when 
dying, I have had enough. 

I return to the point whence I digressed, how that no miser is 
ever content, but envies those who have followed another line of life, 
pining with envy, if his neighbour's goat gives more milk, forgetting 
to compare himself with the crowd of poorer men, ever striving to 
surpass this or that wealthy man. Thus, in his haste to be rich, ever 
before him stands a richer man : it is as when chariots start from the 
barrier, the running horses bear them swiftly on, then hard on the 
steeds that beat his own presses the charioteer, making small account 



no HORACE. [1.2,3. 

of him whom he has passed, and who slowly goes amongst the 
hindmost. Thus rarely can we find the man who says he has had a 
happy life, and who, contented with his portion of days, leaves the 
banquet like one who has had his fill. But enough ; you will think 
that I have been pilfering the desks of blear-eyed Crispinus ; so I will 
not add a word more. 

II. 

I — 24. Men fall into one of two extremes, avarice or prodigality, 
and think to escape from one fault by running into its opposite. 
The guilds of singing girls, the vendors of drugs, beggars, actresses 
in farces, buffoons, all that sort of people, are sad and troubled at the 
death of the singer Tigellius : no wonder, for he was generous to 
them. The man of the opposite character dreads the name of spend- 
thrift, and grudges a poor friend as much as would ward off from him 
cold and pinching poverty. If you ask another why so lavishly he 
wastes the noble property of his grandfather and father on his thank- 
less appetite, buying up every dainty with borrowed money, he 
answers that he should not like to be thought mean and narrow- 
minded. One set praises him, another condemns him. Fufidius 
rich in lands, rich in money put out to interest, dreads the character 
of a worthless prodigal ; he cuts away sixty per cent from the prin- 
cipal, and the more deeply in debt the ruined man is, the more 
hardly he presses him; he is ever on the look-out for bonds of 
minors who have just put on their toga, and whose fathers keep then 
tight. "Great Jupiter!" we exclaim, as soon as we hear of this extortion: 
"but then surely he lives in a style proportionate to his gains?" Not 
so : you would hardly believe how severe he is to himself, so that the 
father in the play, whom Terence brings on the stage as leading 
a miserable life after he has driven away his son, does not torture 
himself worse than Fufidius does. Now, if you ask me what I 
am driving at, I reply, This is what I want to shew, that while fools 
avoid one vice, they run into its opposite. 

III. 

1 — 19. The accotmt of Tigellius, the most inconsistent of men. 
It is a general fault of all singers, that, when among their friends, 
they never can make up their mind to sing, however much pressed ; 
when no one asks them, they never stop singing. This was a charac- 
teristic of Tigellius, a worthy child of Sardinia : Caesar, who might 
have compelled him, could not persuade him, though he intreated 
him by the friendship he and his father had for him: if the whim took 
him, then he would chant "Io Bacche!" from the first course to the 
dessert, one minute in the highest key, then in the lowest on the 
tetrachord. There was no consistency in the man : he would often 
run as one fleeing from an enemy, very often walk as solemnly as one 
bearing the sacred basket of Juno : often he kept two hundred slaves, 
then only ten; sometimes his talk was of kings and tetrarchs, all 
in the magnificent style; anon his language was, "Give me a three- 



I. 3.] THE SA TIRES. j T T 

legged table, a shell of clean salt, a coat, never mind how coarse, 
to keep off the cold." Supposing you presented this thrifty contented 
man with a million sesterces, in a few days he had not a farthing 
in his pockets. He would sit up all night till the morning appeared, 
then all day he snored. Never was such an inconsistent creature. 

19 — yj. It is easy to see other peopled faults. Self-love is foolish 
and wrongs let us examine ourselves. 

But now perhaps some one may say to me: "You, sir, have you no 
faults?" To be sure I have, but of another sort, and perchance not so 
bad. Whilst Maenius was carping at Novius behind his back, "You 
there," says one present, "do you not know yourself, or as one unknown 
do you think to impose on us?" "I for my part," says Maenius, "make 
allowances for myself." This love is foolish and extravagant, and 
deserves the brand of censure. Whilst you look at your own failings, 
much as a blear-eyed man might whose eyes are unanointed, why is 
your sight of your friend's faults as keen as that of eagle or Epi- 
daurian serpent? Then to you in your turn it comes to pass, that 
your acquaintance peer into your faults. Here is a man a little 
quick-tempered, ill able to bear the sharp criticism of our modern 
wits ; no doubt he is open to ridicule, as one is who is shorn in 
country style, whose toga hangs loosely, whose badly fastened shoe 
fits his foot ill ; and yet he is a good man, so that you will not find a 
better; a friend to you, and under a rough exterior is concealed a 
great genius. In short, sift and examine yourself, whether any faults 
J are not implanted in you, either by nature, or by bad habits : for 
in the neglected field grows the fern whose end is to be burnt. 



38 — 42. // were well, if friends, like lovers, could be blind. 

Now, let us first look at the fact that a lover either sees not the 
ugly blemishes of his mistress, or is even charmed with them, as 
Balbinus was with the polypus in Hagna's nose. Would to heaven 
we could make the like mistakes in friendship, and that such errors 
had a fair name given them by right feeling! 

43 — 66. We should do as parents do, give gentle names to the faults 
of our friends : but now their very virtues have the names of vices 
given to them. 

We should not be offended at any fault of a friend, more than a 
parent is with the defects of a child ; a boy squints, his father talks of 
the cast of his eye ; or he calls him a little dear, when he is quite 
a dwarf, like that abortion Sisyphus not long ago ; another child 
with misshapen legs is called a Varus ; or if he can barely balance 
himself on his crooked ancles, then his father with a lisp speaks 
of him as a true Scaurus. So, if a friend lives rather nearly, let us 
call him a thrifty man. Another is rather wanting in tact, and some- 
what vain ; he expects to appear complacent to his friends ; or, if 
he be rather rough and too free, let him pass for an honest blunt 



HORACE. [I. 3. 



man ; if rather hot-tempered, let him take his place among men 
of spirit. As I imagine, such charity would make and keep friends. 
But we invert even virtues, and, when a vessel is pure, desire to smear 
it. There lives amongst us an honest soul; "Ah," say we, "a poor 
creature:" to the cautious man we give the name of dull. Another 
avoids every snare set for him, and never exposes himself to attack, 
as he lives in the present age, where keen envy and calumnies are 
so rife; he is a sober-minded careful man, but we call him false 
and sly. Or is there one of character too undisguised (just as I at 
times have thrust myself on you, Maecenas), one who, when his friend 
is reading or meditating, interrupts and annoys him with trifling talk; 
then we say, "Plainly this man has no common tact." 

66 — 98. We all have our faults, so we must pardon one another, 
and not condemn little failings as we would great sins. The 
Stoic dog77ia that all transgressions are equal is against sense i 
right feeling, and expediency. 

Alas, how ready we are to sanction a law that presses hard 
on ourselves ! For no man by nature is faultless ; the best man is 
he whose soul is troubled with fewest faults. A pleasant friend, as is 
but fair, will balance my faults by my good qualities, and incline 
the weight of his judgment to the latter, if they be more numerous, 
in case he desires my love ; on this condition I too will weigh him 
in the same scales. He who expects not to offend his friend by his 
own lumps, must pardon that friend's warts : it is a fair rule, if one 
looks for allowance to failings, to give like measure in return. In 
short, inasmuch as it is impossible utterly to eradicate the fault of a 
passionate temper, and other defects that cling to us who are no 
philosophers, why does not right reason use its own weights and 
measures, and correct each offence with a suitable punishment? 
Were a master to crucify a slave, because, when told to remove a dish, 
he licked up the half-cold sauce of the half-eaten fish, men in their 
senses would count Jiim madder than Labeo. How much more 
outrageous and great is your sin, when a friend has committed a 
little offence, for resenting which you are regarded as unamiable, 
if then you with bitter feeling hate and avoid him, as Ruso was 
shunned by his debtor ! to the poor man came the black Calends, then, 
if he could not raise somehow or another the principal and interest, with 
outstretched neck he had to listen, like a captive, while his creditor 
read his wearying histories. My friend, suppose, has knocked off the 
table a dish that old Evander often held in his hands; for this, 
or because, being hungry, he took before me a chicken that was placed 
in my share of the dish, should I regard him as a less agreeable friend? 
What am I to do, if he is guilty of theft, or breach of trust, or disowns 
his covenant? Those who hold all sins to be equal are hard pressed, 
when brought to the test of real life ; feelings and habits make against 
them, and expediency itself, which is pretty nearly the source of justice 
and equity. 



I. 3.] THE SATIRES. 



99 — 1 24. The Epicurean doctrine touching the first state of man, and 
the oj'igin of law. This doctrine is agreeable to common sense. 

When men like animals crawled forth upon the early earth, as 
dumb and low as brute beasts, for acorns and beds of leaves they 
used to fight with nails and fists, and presently with clubs, and so in 
order of time with the arms that necessity invented, until they 
discovered words and names to express their utterances and feelings ; 
afterwards they began to desist from war, to fortify towns and enact 
laws against theft and robbery and adultery. For before the age of 
Helen, woman was the most pernicious source of war ; but by obscure 
deaths fell they, whom he who was superior in might struck down, as a 
bull does in the herd. That laws were introduced through dread of 
injuries one must needs confess, if one would search into the annals 
and records of the world. Nor can nature put such a separation be- 
tween right and wrong as it does between advantages and their oppo- 
sites, things to be avoided and things to be desired ; nor will true 
reason ever prove that the sin is as great and the same, for a man to 
gather the young cabbages of his neighbour's garden, and to filch 
away by night the sacred vessels of the gods : let us adopt a rule ap- 
pointing suitable punishments to each case, so that you may not cut 
one deserving only the whip with the horrible scourge. For as to 
your striking one with a switch who deserves a severer lashing, I 
confess I am not afraid, though you say theft is as bad as robbery 
with violence, and threaten to cut down with the same hook tall and 
short shrubs alike, if men entrusted you with royal power. 

124 — 142. Horace laughs at the doctrine of the Stoics that the 
philosopher of that school is not wise only, but knows all arts, is 
beautiful, a king. 

If the philosopher is rich and a good cobbler, and the only beautiful 
one, and a king, why wish for what you already have? "Ah," says the 
Stoic, "you do not see the meaning of father Chrysippus. The phi- 
losopher never made himself a pair of shoes or sandals, and yet he is 
an excellent shoemaker." "How so?" I ask. "Why, as Hermogenes, 
albeit he opens not his mouth, is yet an excellent singer and musician, 
as Alfenus is a good workman, though he laid aside all his tools, and 
closed his shop, so the philosopher is the best workman of every 
work, yes he alone, yea and king too." "What!" say I ; "why, the 
mischievous boys pluck you by the beard, and unless you keep 
them in order with your club, the surrounding crowd press and throng 
you, and you, poor wretch, burst with anger and howl like a dog, O 
mightiest of mighty monarchs ! To be short, whilst your royal high- 
ness goes to a penny bath, and no body-guard attends you except 
that bore Crispinus, my kind friends will pardon my peccadillos, 
for I am no philosopher, and I in my turn will gladly bear with 
their shortcomings, and, though a subject, live happier than your 
Majesty." 

HOR. 8 



li 4 HORACE. [I. 4 . 

IV. 
I — 13. The merits and defects of Lucilius the satirist 

Eupolis and Cratinus and Aristophanes the poets, and other 
authors of the Old Comedy, if any one deserved to be portrayed as a 
rogue and a thief, an adulterer, an assassin, or was for other reasons 
infamous, without reserve used to brand him as such. Lucilius 
in all points adheres to them, them he follows, he has changed only 
the feet of the verse and metre, a writer not inelegant, of quick 
discernment, but harsh in the composition of his lines, for in this 
point he was faulty: within the hour he would often dictate two 
hundred verses, as though it were a mighty exploit, standing on 
one foot. As he flowed on like a muddy stream, one would have 
been glad to remove a good deal; a verbose author, too lazy to 
endure the labour of writing, correct writing, I mean, for as to 
quantity, I do not regard that. 

13 — 38. Horace is unlike Crispinus in facility of composition, and 
unlike Fannius in fondness for public recitation : and besides, he 
knows how unpopular is his sort of writing. 

See, here is Crispinus, he challenges me, giving me long odds. 
"Take," says he, "if you please, writing tablets, so will I ; name your 
place, hour, umpires; let us see which of us two can compose most." 
" No," say I, " I thank Heaven for having given me a poor and humble 
genius, that speaks but seldom and very little ; whilst do you, if so 
you please, imitate the air enclosed in bellows of goat-skin, puffing 
hard till the fire softens the iron. Fannius was fond of his own 
writings; without any one asking him he brought his desks and 
bust ; whilst my writings no one reads, as I fear to recite in public, 
because there are persons not at all fond of this sort of literature, as is 
natural, when most of them deserve censure. Draw any one you 
please out of the middle of the crowd : he is troubled either with 
avarice or wretched ambition ; or he is maddened with adulterous 
passion ; or he is dazzled by the brightness of plate ; or, as Albius, 
has a stupid admiration for vessels of bronze : another barters mer- 
chandise from the quarter of the rising sun to the region warmed 
by its evening rays, nay through all dangers headlong he is borne, 
like a cloud of dust by a whirlwind, dreading lest he should lose 
a farthing of his property, or not increase it. All these people fear 
verses, hate poets. "See," say they, "the wisp of hay on his horn ; give 
him a wide berth ; if he can but raise a laugh for himself, there is 
not a friend he would spare; whatever he has once scribbled on 
his paper, he longs for all to know as they return from the bakeries 
and reservoirs, boys and old women, all alike." 



I. 4 .] THE SATIRES. U 5 



38 — 62. Horace does not pretend to be a poet; indeed comedy ', and 
satire, ihe daughter of comedy, are hardly poetry at all. 

Now come awhile, and hear a little in answer. In the first place 
I will except myself from the list of those whom I allow to be poets ; 
for you surely would not consider it enough to write lines of the 
proper number of feet, nor would you regard as a poet one who, 
like me, composes what is akin to common prose. The honoured 
name of poet you would give to the man of genius, to one inspired 
in soul, to the tongue that is to utter noble things. For this reason 
some have made it a question whether comedy be poetry at all, for 
there is no inspiration and vigour either in the diction or the subjects ; 
except so far as by a certain scansion it differs from prose, it is 
mere prose. Perhaps you will object, "See, how the angry father 
rages, because his prodigal son, madly in love with a mistress, re- 
fuses a wife with a large dowry, and utterly disgraces himself by walk- 
ing drunken in the streets, torch in hand, in the daylight." "But," 
I reply, "would not profligate Pomponius hear language as strong as 
this, if his father were alive?" So then it is not enough to make a 
mere verse of plain words ; for if you broke the line up, then any 
father would storm in the same fashion as the father on the stage. 
And if from my present writings, or those of old Lucilius you were to 
take the regular scansion and measures, placing the first word last, 
and inverting the order, the case would be quite different from break- 
ing up the following : 

" After that Discord grim 
Burst wide War's posts and portals bound with steel." 

Here would you still find the pieces of the dismembered poet. 

63 — 93. Horace hopes he is not ill-natured, nor vain, nor malignant, 
but only fo fid of a harmless banter. 

But enough of this : on some other occasion I will enquire whether 
comedy is true poetry or not ; now all I ask is, whether you are 
reasonable in disliking this sort of composition. Keen Sulcius and 
Caprius, wretchedly hoarse, walk up and down with their bills of 
indictment, both of them a great terror to robbers : but he that leads 
a good life, whose hands are clean, need fear neither. However like 
you are to Cselius and Birrus the robbers, I am not like Caprius 
and Sulcius: why dread me? I do not wish my w r orks to appear 
in any shop or at any columns, that the hands of the people and 
of Hermogenes Tigellius may sweat over them: I do not recite to 
any one but friends, and that upon compulsion, not anywhere, nor 
before anybody. Many recite their writings in the middle of the 
forum, or in the bath ; they say the voice sounds sweetly in the en- 
closed place. Vain people may be pleased with this, as they stay 
not to enquire, whether thus they do not behave without tact, and out 
of season. " You take delight," says he, " in annoying, and do this 

8—2 



n6 HORACE. [I. 4 . 

from malice prepense." I reply, "Whence have you picked up this 
stone to cast it at me? Is your authority for this actually one of those 
with whom I have passed my life? He who backbites an absent 
friend ; who does not defend him when another blames him ; who 
tries to raise the horse-laughter of the company and to get the name 
of a wit ; who can make up a story about what he has never seen ; who 
cannot keep a secret entrusted to him ; that man is a black sheep, of 
him, Roman, you must beware. Often may you see four at dinner 
on each of the three couches ; one of these will sprinkle his banter 
on all except the host, on him too, when he has well drunken, and 
when the truth-speaking god of liberty opens the seals of the heart 
with wine. Now such an one appears agreeable and polite and free- 
hearted to you who are an enemy to malice. And I, if I have had my 
laugh at vain Rufillus who smells like a scent-box, and at Gorgonius 
stinking like a he-goat, do I seem to you a spiteful backbiter?" 

94 — 103. A sample of real malignity. 

If any mention of the thefts of Petillius Capitolinus arises in your 
presence, you would defend him after tha't way of yours, saying: 
"I have been a comrade and friend of Capitolinus since we were 
boys, and at my request he has done much for my sake, and I am 
glad he lives in our city uncondemnned ; but yet I do wonder how he 
was acquitted on that trial." Now this is as the juice of the black 
cuttle-fish, this is like very verdigris : that such ill-nature shall be 
far from my writings and from my heart first, I promise as truly as I 
can promise anything. 

103 — 129. Horace says if he is a little too free, it is to be attributed 
to the education he had from his worthy father. 

If my language is ever too free, too playful, such an amount of 
liberty you will grant me in your courtesy : for to this my good father 
trained me, to avoid each vice by setting a mark on it by examples. 
Whenever he would exhort me to live a thrifty, frugal life, contented 
with what he had saved for me, he would say, "Do you not see how 
hard it is for the son of Albius to live, and how needy Barrus is, a 
signal warning, to prevent any one from wasting his inheritance." 
If he would deter me from dishonourable love, he would say, "Do 
not be like Sectanus :" to save me from an adulterous passion, when 
I might enjoy an unforbidden love, he used to say, "Trebonius' 
exposure was not creditable. A philosopher will give you the right 
reasons for shunning or choosing things ; I am contented, if I can 
maintain the custom handed down from our ancestors, and, so long 
as you need a guardian, preserve your life and character from ruin ; 
when mature age has strengthened your body and soul, then you 
will swim without a cork." Thus he moulded my boyhood by these 
words, and if he advised me to any course of conduct, he would say, 
"You have an authority for so acting," and put before me one of the 



I. 5-] THE SATIRES. 1I7 

select judges; or if he would forbid me, then said he, "Can you 
possibly doubt, whether this is disreputable and injurious, when this 
man and that man are notorious for an evil report. As the funeral 
of a neighbour frightens to death the intemperate when sick, and, 
through dread of their own end, makes them careful, so minds still 
docile are often deterred from vice by the disgrace of others." 

129 — 143. The result of this training, as Horace hopes, is that he is 
free from gross vices, and has a desire to improve himself 

Through this education I am sound from all ruinous vices, though I 
am troubled with moderate and pardonable failings ; perhaps, too, a 
large deduction even from these has been made by advancing years, 
free-spoken friends, my own reflections; for I am not wanting to 
myself, whenever my little couch or arcade receives me. "This, I 
think, would be more correct ; acting so, I shall do better : so will my 
friends find me pleasant. A certain one in this did not so well : am 
I to be so heedless, as to behave like him?" Such are my silent 
meditations ; when I have a little leisure, I amuse myself by my 
writings ; now this is one of those moderate faults of mine, and if you 
will not pardon it, a great band of poets will come to succour me, (for 
indeed we are a clear majority,) and, like the Jews, we will make 
a proselyte of you, and force you to join our company. 



I — 26. Ho7'ace with Heliodorus travels to Forum Appii. Then by 
a canal during the night to Feronia, and so to Anxur on the 
hill. 

After my departure from great Rome, Aricia received me in a poor 
inn ; my companion was Heliodorus, by far the most learned of all 
the Greeks ; then on we went to Forum Appii, a town crammed full 
of boatmen and extortionate tavern-keepers. This journey we were 
so indolent as to divide into two ; it is only one to the more active ; 
the Appian Way is less tiresome to the leisurely traveller. Here I, on 
account of the utter badness of the water, proclaim war against my 
stomach, and have to wait for my companions at dinner with impa- 
tient temper. And now night began to draw its shades over the 
earth, and to dot the sky with stars : then the slaves bantered the 
boatmen, and the boatmen the slaves: "Bring to here," cries one: 
"why you are putting in hundreds ; stay, that's enough." Whilst the 
fare is demanded, and the mule fastened, a whole hour is gone. 
Troublesome musquitoes and marsh frogs keep sleep from our eyes, 
while the boatman drenched with much sour wine sings of his absent 
mistress, and a passenger rivals his song ; at last the weary traveller 
drops asleep, and the lazy boatman fastens to a stone the halter of 
the mule, and turns it out to graze, and snores on his back. And 
now day was dawning, and we find that the boat is not going on ; 



n8 HORACE. [L 5. 

till up springs a choleric fellow, and belabours with willow cudgel 
the head and ribs of mule and boatman ; so it is the fourth hour, and 
we are hardly landed. Then our faces and hands we bathe in thy 
fair water, Feronia : and after breakfast crawl on three miles, and go 
under the gate of Anxur, a town built on rocks that shine white 
from afar. 

27 — 51. From Anxur they travel though Fundi, Formiae, Sinuessa, 
over the Campanian bridge, through Capua, to Cocceius 1 villa at 
Caudium. Horace meets with Maecenas, Virgil, and Varius, his 
dear friends, and with others. 

Here we expected good Maecenas, and Cocceius, both sent as 
envoys on important matters, whose habit it was to mediate between 
estranged friends. And here I put on my sore eyes black ointment ; 
meanwhile Maecenas arrives, and Cocceius with him, and at the 
same time Capito Fonteius, that accomplished gentleman ; Antony 
had not a greater friend than him. We are only too glad to leave 
Fundi under the praetorship of Aufidius Luscus, where we laugh at 
the badges of office worn by the crazy scribe, his praetexta and 
laticlave, and pan of live coals. Next, being tired, we pass the night 
in the city of the Mamurra family, where Murena lends us a house, 
Capito entertains us at dinner. The following day shines upon us, as 
much the pleasantest day in our journey ; for at Sinuessa there meet 
us Plotius, Virgil and Varius ; the world cannot show souls freer from 
stain, or more devoted friends to me. Oh, what embraces there 
were! oh, how great was our joy! As long as I have my senses, I 
would compare nothing to a delightful friend. Then the little villa 
next to the Campanian bridge gave us a roof over our heads, and the 
purveyors, what they are bound to supply, all necessaries. Leaving 
this place, our sumpter mules are eased of their pack-saddles early 
in the day at Capua ; Maecenas goes to play at ball, Virgil and I to 
sleep ; for it is bad for the sore-eyed and dyspeptic to play at ball. 
At the end of the next stage we are received in Cocceius' well-stored 
villa situated above the taverns at Caudium. 

51 — 70. A jocular description of a contest of words between two 
parasites of Maecenas. 

And now, O Muse, be so kind as briefly to record for me the 
battle of words between Sarmentus the buffoon and Messius the 
game-cock; and sing to me who were the parents of either com- 
batant. Messius was of the glorious stock of the Osci ; as to Sar- 
mentus, his mistress still lives ; such were the ancestors of these who 
met in fight. Sarmentus began the action thus : " I say you are like 
a wild horse." We all laugh; and Messius says, "I accept your 
simile," and fiercely shakes his head. Then says the other: "Ah, 
if the horn had not been cut out of your forehead, what would you 
not do, seeing, though mutilated, you thus threaten?" For an ugly 



I. 5-] THE SATIRES, n 9 

scar disfigured the left side of his shaggy forehead. He had many a 
joke too on his Campanian disease, and on his face, asking him to 
dance the Cyclops' pastoral dance ; no need had such as he of 
mask or tragic buskin. Much had Messius the game-cock to say to 
this, asking him, whether, according to his vow, he had yet dedicated 
his chain to the Lares ; if he was a scribe, yet this did not one whit 
abate his mistress' claim upon him; then he enquired why he had 
ever run away at all, one pound of meal was enough for such a lean 
pigmy. Thus very pleasantly our dinner passed. 

71 — 93. The fire at the inn at Beneventum. They cross the hills 
familiar to Horace, pass Equotutium, and reach Canusium, 

From hence we go straight on to Beneventum, where our bustling 
landlord nearly burnt his house down, whilst roasting lean thrushes ; 
for the wandering tongue of flame, as the fire-god glided up the old 
kitchen, hastened to lick the top of the roof; then might you see the 
hungry guests and frightened slaves all eager to save the dinner and 
extinguish the fire. From that point Apulia begins to show to my 
eyes its familiar mountains scorched by the Altino ; these mountains 
we had never got over, had not a neighbouring villa at Trivicum 
welcomed us; there the fire drew tears from my eyes, as on the 
hearth was burning green wood with the leaves on. Thence on- 
ward we are whirled in carriages twenty-four miles, to reach at 
night a little town with a name I may not speak in verse ; how- 
ever, I can very easily describe it ; here is sold water, the commonest 
of all things ; but the bread is most excellent, so that the traveller, 
who knows the road, carries it on his shoulders a stage further ; for 
the bread at Canusium is gritty ; the town is no better supplied with 
water; brave Diomede of old was its founder. Here Varius sorrow- 
fully leaves his weeping friends. 

94 — 104. He then travels from Ruhi to Brundusium; at Egnatia he 
is, as a philosopher, sceptical about a miracle. 

Thence we arrived at Rubi quite fatigued, as was to be expected, 
the stage being long and the road broken up by the rain. Next 
day's weather was better, but the road still worse, even to the walls 
of Barium, a fishing town: then Egnatia, a place built when the 
Nymphs were angry, gave us theme for laughter and joke, where 
they try to persuade us that frankincense melts without fire in the 
entrance of the temple. The J ew Apella may believe it, not I ; for I 
have been taught that the gods lead a life free from care, and that if 
nature works wonders, it is not that the gods trouble themselves to 
send them down from the roof of heaven. Brundusium is the end of 
my long narrative and long journey. 



HORACE. [I. 6. 



VI. 



I — 17. Maecenas ', though himself as nobly born as any one, yet never 
attached too much value to high birth. 

There is none in all the inhabitants of Lydian Etruria more nobly 
born than you, Maecenas ; and your ancestors, maternal and paternal 
alike, commanded in the days of old mighty legions ; and yet you do 
not, like most, turn up your nose at men of lowly origin, such as me, 
the son of a freedman. When you say that it makes no difference 
who a man's father is, provided he himself be free-born, you are right 
in your persuasion that even before the reign of Servius, the king so 
lowly born., often many, sprung from ancestors of no account, have 
yet lived lives of probity, and risen to high honours ; on the other 
hand that Lasvinus, though descended from that Valerius, by whom 
Tarquinius Superbus was driven forth and fled from his regal power, 
was never valued at more- than a single farthing in the judgment even 
of that people who set a mark of censure on him : you know that 
people well, how in their folly they often give honours to the un- 
worthy, and are the vainglorious slaves of fame, and stare awe-struck 
at inscriptions and busts. How then ought we to act, we so far, 
so very far removed from the vulgar? 

18—44. A man should keep in the station he was born in, if he 
would avoid a thousand troubles and annoyances, for the people 
cannot endure these upstarts. 

For, granted that the people at the elections should prefer Lasvinus 
to Decius, a new man, and that the censor Appius should remove me 
from the senate as the son of a freedman: well, it would only be 
what I deserved for not being content to remain in my own skin. 
But the truth is, Vanity draws all bound to her glittering car, low- 
born and high-born alike. How did it benefit you, Tullius, to resume 
the laticlave you had laid aside, and to become a tribune? Envy 
fastened closer on you : in your private station it had been less. For 
as soon as any foolish man binds round his leg the four black straps 
of leather, and wears the laticlave down his breast, straightway he 
hears it said: "Who is this man? who is his father?'' Just as if one is 
disordered with that vanity of Barrus, desiring to be thought hand- 
some, then, wherever he goes, he makes the girls curious on each 
point, his face, his calf, his foot, teeth, hair ; so he, who offers to take 
care of the citizens, the city, the empire, Italy and the shrines of the 
gods, forces all men curiously to enquire who is his father, and whe- 
ther he is dishonoured by birth from an unknown mother. "What! 
do you, the son of some slave, a Syrus, or a Dama, or a Dionysius, do 
you dare to throw down Roman citizens from the Tarpeian rock, or 
hand them over to Cadmus?" "But," says he, "my colleague Novius 
sits one row behind me, for he is what my father was." On this 



I. 6.] THE SATIRES. 121 

account do you imagine yourself a Paullus or Messala? and then this 
Novius, if two hundred wagons and three funerals meet in the forum, 
will shout with a voice able to drown horns and trumpets ; and this 
at any rate impresses us people. 

45 — 64. An account of Horaces introduction to Maecenas. 

Now to return to myself, the son of a freedman, whom all carp at 
as the son of a freedman, at present, because I am intimate with you, 
Maecenas; formerly, because I was a tribune in command of a Roman 
legion. The two cases are unlike ; the first honour might perhaps 
with reason be envied, but not your friendship, the less so, as you are 
cautious to admit none but the worthy to your intimacy, and keep far 
from you base flattery. Neither in this can I call myself lucky, as 
though by chance I had got your friendship, for it was no luck that 
brought me to your notice : the 'good Virgil first, then Varius, told 
you my character. The day I came to see you, I spoke but little, and 
that nervously ; silent shame stopped me from speaking more. I tell 
you no tale of an illustrious father, or of my riding about my farm on a 
nag of Saturium, but the plain truth of myself. You answer, such is 
your way, but little ; I left you ; then, nine months after, you send for 
me again, and bid me be in the number of your friends. I account 
it a great honour that I pleased you, for you can distinguish between 
a true gentleman and one that is base, not judging by the distinction 
of the father, but by a life and heart unsullied. 

65 — 88. Whatever I am, I owe it to my good father, who spared no 
expense or care on my education. 

And yet, if the faults and defects of my nature are moderate ones, 
and with their exception my life is upright, (just as if one were to 
censure blemishes found here and there on a handsome body,) if no 
one can truly lay to my charge avarice, meanness, or frequenting 
vicious haunts, if (that I may praise myself) my life is pure and 
innocent, and my friends love me, I owe it all to my father; he, 
though not rich, for his farm was a poor one, would not send me 
to the school of Flavius, to which the first youths of the town, the 
sons of the centurions, the great men there, used to go, with their 
bags and slates on their left arm, taking the teacher's fee on the Ides 
of eight months in the year : but he had the spirit to carry me, when 
a boy, to Rome, there to learn the liberal arts which any knight or 
senator would have his own sons taught. Had any one seen my 
dress, and the attendant servants, so far as would be observed in a 
populous city, he would have thought that such expense was defrayed 
from an old hereditary estate. He himself was ever present, a guard- 1 
ian incorruptible, at all my studies. Why say more? My modest)-, 
that first grace of virtue, he preserved untainted, not only by an 
actual stain, but by the very rumour of it; not fearing that any 
one hereafter should make this a reproach, if as auctioneer, or col- 



122 



HORACE. [I. 6. 



lector, like himself, I should follow a trade of petty gains ; nor should 
I have grumbled at my lot ; but as the case is now, to him more 
praise is due, I owe him greater thanks. 

89 — 1 1 1. Horace would not change his father or his lot, if he could. 
Many are the advantages of his present easy and humble life. 

So long as I have my senses, I trust I never shall be sorry of having 
had such a father ; and may I never defend myself as so many do, 
who say it is no fault of theirs, that their parents were not free- 
born and illustrious. Utterly different is my language and my 
sentiments from theirs: indeed, if nature bid us resume the journey 
of life from a certain year, and choose such parents as each would 
prefer to suit his ambitious longings, I should be content with mine, 
and unwilling to select those distinguished by the fasces and chairs 
of office : the people would count me mad, but you perchance would 
think me sound-minded, for being unwilling to carry an irksome 
burden to which I have never been accustomed. For then directly 
I should have to make my fortune larger, then I should have more 
visitors, I should have to take with me two or three clients, lest 
forsooth I go to the country or travel abroad alone ; I should have 
to keep more grooms and horses, and to take carriages with me. 
But now on dumpy mule I may go, if so I fancy, as far as Tarentum, 
whilst the weight of the saddle-bags chafes its loins, the rider its 
shoulders : so no one will taunt me with meanness, as they do you, 
Tillius, when, on the road to Tibur, you, the prsetor, are attended by 
five slaves bearing your kitchen utensils and case of wine. So far do 
I live in greater comfort than you, illustrious senator, and a thousand 
others. 

hi — 131. An account of the manner in which Horace spent his day. 

Wherever the whim takes me, I walk leisurely alone, I enquire the 
price of vegetables and flour, and often in the evening take a turn 
through the cheating Circus and Forum; I stop and listen to the 
fortune-tellers, and then home I return to my dish of leeks, chick- 
peas and pancake. My dinner is served by three servants, my 
marble side-table holds two cups with a ladle ; close at hand is a 
common vessel, a jug with a bowl, all Campanian earthenware. 
Then I go to bed, not troubled with the thought that to-morrow I 
shall have to rise early and meet Marsyas, who says that he cannot 
stand the cheek of the younger Novius. I lie till the fourth hour, 
then I take a stroll, or, after reading or writing in quiet as much as is 
agreeable, I anoint myself with oil, unlike that which dirty Natta 
robs the lamps of. But when I am tired, and the sun's increasing heat 
has warned me to go to the bath, I shun the Plain of Mars and the 
game at ball. Having taken a sparing luncheon, such as just will 
prevent my passing the day on an empty stomach, I take my ease at 
home. This is the life of those who are free from the wretched 



I. 7.] THE SATIRES. I23 

burdens of intrigue ; thus I comfort myself with the thought that I 
shall live more pleasantly, than if my grandfather, father, and uncle 
had all been quaestors. 



VII. 

1 — 20. A contest between Rupilhts Rex of Praeneste and Pershis, 
supposed to have taken place while Horace was serving in the 
army of Brutus. 

On the proscription list was Rupilius Rex, the king, a man all slime 
and venom ; him the Hybrid Persius took vengeance on ; a story, I 
imagine, known to all sore-eyed men and all barbers. This Persius 
was a rich man, and had very large business at Clazomenae ; also a 
troublesome lawsuit with the king : Persius was a hard man, in power 
of annoyance he could beat the king, confident was he and swelling 
with passion, so foul-mouthed as to distance the Sisennae and the 
Barri with the fleetness of white coursers. To return to the king: 
these two men could come to no terms ; and indeed all men are con- 
tentious in proportion to their courage, when they go to war with one 
another; thus between Priam's son Hector and the spirited Achilles 
deadly was the anger, so that death alone could part them, the reason 
being only this, that either chieftain was of the highest courage: 
whereas, if discord troubles two cowards, or if the combatants are 
unequally matched, as were Diomede and Lycian Glaucus, then let 
the less valiant be only too glad to get off, and tender presents 
besides : however, when Brutus was praetor of the wealthy province 
of Asia, then engaged Rupilius and Persius, such a pair that Bac- 
chius was not more fairly matched with Bithus. Fiercely they rush 
forward to the trial ; a tine exhibition, both of them. 

2 1 — 3 5 . The acco unt of the con test. 

Persius opens his case ; a laugh is raised by all in court ; he 
praises Brutus, he praises his retinue ; as to Brutus, he calls him 
the sun of the province ; his officers are stars of salubrious influence ; 
except the king, who had risen like the dog-star, the farmers' enemy : 
on rushed Persius like a winter torrent through a forest, where the 
axe seldom comes. Then the man of Praeneste, in answer to his 
adversary's full stream of bitter words, retorts with abuse taken from 
the vineyard, like a vine-dresser stout and unconquered, to whom 
often has to yield a passer-by with mighty voice crying to him, 
"Cuckoo!" But Persius, a Greek, being steeped besides in Italian 
vinegar, shouts aloud: "In the name of the great gods, Brutus, I 
entreat you, for it is your habit to rid us of kings, why not cut the 
throat of this king also? This, believe me, is one of your proper 
works." 



I24 HORACE. [1.8. 



VIII. ' 

I — 22. Priapus, set up by Maecenas in his newly-made gardens, is 
introduced as contrasting the former state of the site with the 
present. 

Once I was the stem of a fig tree, a good-for-nothing log of wood, 
when the carpenter, doubting whether to make of me a bench or a 
Priapus, thought it best to make me a god. So a god am I, of 
thieves and birds the special terror, for my right hand keeps thieves 
off, whilst the crown of reeds fixed on my head scares the trouble- 
some birds, and prevents their lighting in the new gardens. To this 
ground formerly any fellow-slave would hire bearers to carry on a 
poor bier the bodies thrown out of their narrow cells. Here was a 
common burying-place for wretched paupers, for Pantolabus the 
buffoon and the spendthrift Nomentanus. Here a stone marked out 
a thousand feet in front, and three hundred in depth, with the inscrip- 
tion upon it, that the monument might not pass to the heirs. Now 
one may live on the Esquiline, for it is a healthy spot, and one may 
take a walk on the sunny terrace, whence but lately with sad thoughts 
men looked on the ground hideous with bleaching bones ; whilst to 
me it is not so much the birds and beasts wont to infest the spot that 
give me distress and trouble, as the witches who with charms and 
poisons torture the souls of men : these women I cannot destroy, nor 
anyhow stop them from gathering bones and noxious herbs, as soon 
as the wandering moon shows her beauteous face. 

23 — $0. Priapus was a witness of the abominable proceedings of 
Canidia and Sagana, and gave them a good fright. 

I myself saw Canidia stalking along with her sable robe tucked up, 
naked were her feet, dishevelled her hair, she howled in company with 
the elder Sagana : their ghastly colour made them both horrible to 
look on. Then they began to scrape the earth with their nails, and 
to tear with their teeth a black lamb ; the blood was all poured into 
a trench, that from it they might entice the spirits of the dead, the 
souls that were to give responses. There was an image of wool there 
with another of wax ; the larger was that of wool ; it was to punish 
the smaller form ; for the waxen one seemed, as in suppliant guise, just 
about to perish, as by a slave's death. One of the witches calls on 
Hecate, the other on fierce Tisiphone ; then might you see serpents 
and hell-hounds roaming about, and the moon blushing and hiding 
herself behind the tall sepulchres, that she might not witness such 
deeds. Why need I describe the details ? how the ghosts in converse 
with Sagana made the place echo to their sad shrill cries, and how 
they buried in the ground the beard of a wolf, with the teeth of a 
spotted snake, and how the fire blazed more freely, fed by the effigy of 



I. g.] THE SATIRES. 12 $ 

wax, and how I shuddered at the words and deeds of the two witches, 
I, a witness, but not unavenged ; for as loud as the noise of a bursting 
bladder was the crack of my fig wood ; off ran the two into the city ; 
then might you see not without laughing much and much amusement, 
the false teeth of Canidia fall out, and the lofty head-dress of Sagana 
tumble down, and the herbs and enchanted bonds of their arms fly 
about. 

IX. 

I — 20. Horace is beset by an impertinent man. 

I happened to be walking along the Sacred Street, as is my wont ; I 
was thinking of some trifle or another, quite lost in it : up runs to me 
a man I only knew by name, and, seizing my hand, says, " How do 
you do, my dearest friend?" "Pretty well," say I, "as times go, and 
am quite at your service." As he kept sticking close to me, I antici- 
pate him by saying, " Have you any further commands?" But he to 
me: "You must know me, I am a scholar." Then say I, "On that 
account I shall esteem you more." I was wretchedly anxious to get 
away from him ; so at one moment I quickened my pace, at times I 
came to a stop, I whispered anything in my servant's ear, whilst the 
perspiration was trickling down to my very ancles. " O Bolanus, how 
I envy you your hot temper," said I to myself; he meanwhile went on 
chattering about anything, praising the streets, the city. As I did not 
answer him a word, he says, "You are dying to get away, I have seen 
it from the first ; but it is no good, I shall stick to you, and accom- 
pany you all the way you are going." Then said I, "There is no 
need for you to take such a long round, I want to visit some one you 
do not know ; it is across the Tiber, a long way off, he is ill in bed, 
it is near Csesar's gardens." He answers, "I have nothing particular 
to do, and I am a good walker ; I will go with you all the way." 
Down go my ears, like those of a sulky donkey, when it feels the 
weight too heavy for its back. 

21 — 34. The man praises himself. Horaces humorous despair. 

Then he begins : "Unless I deceive myself, you would not esteem 
Viscus or Varius as friends more than me: for who is a better or 
readier poet than I am? who can dance with more ease than I? 
Hermogenes himself might envy my singing." Here was an oppor- 
tunity of putting in a word : " Is your mother alive? have you relations 
to whom your life and health are important?" "No," says he, "I have 
not one ; I have laid them all at rest." " Happy people ! " say I, " now 
I am left ; so despatch me at once ; for my sad fate is now at hand, 
predicted to me, when a boy, by a Sabine old woman, after she had 
shaken her divining urn: 'This boy will neither poisons dire, nor 
hostile sword destroy, nor pleurisy, nor cough, nor gout that makes 
men limp ; on some future day a chatterbox will end his life ; where- 
fore all great talkers let him, if wise, avoid, as soon as he has grown 
to man's estate.'" 



I2 6 HORACE. [I.9. 

35 — 48. The object of the persecutor now appeared, which was to get, 
through Horace, an introduction to Maecenas. 

So we had reached Vesta's temple, and a fourth part of the day 
was gone, and it chanced he was bound to appear to answer to one 
to whom he had given bail, or, if he failed, to lose his cause. " If you 
love me," says he, "give me your aid in court." I answered, "May I 
perish, if I can appear before a praetor, or know aught of common 
law ; and I am in a hurry to get you know where." " I am doubtful," 
says he, "what to do, to leave you or my case." "Me, I pray !" said 
I. "No, I won't," said he ; and then went on before me : I, for it is 
hard work to contend with one's conqueror, even follow. Then he 
resumes his attack: "On what terms are you with Maecenas? he is 
select in his friendship, being a man of sense ; no one ever made a 
more adroit use of his fortune. You would have in me a powerful 
backer, able to play the second part, if you would but introduce me ; 
may I utterly perish, if you would not make for yourself a clear stage !" 

48 — 60. Horace pays Maecenas an indirect compliment. 

I replied : "We do not live on the terms that you imagine ; there is 
not a house more honest than that, or more free from such intrigues ; 
it never annoys me, if another there is richer or more learned than I 
am ; each has his own position there." "What you tell me," said he, 
"is wonderful, almost incredible." "But," say I, "it is the truth." 
" Well," said he, " you increase my desire for his intimacy." I reply, 
" You have only to wish for it ; such is your virtue, you will take him 
by storm ; he is one that may be won, and this is the reason why he 
is so hard to approach at first." " I will not be wanting to myself," 
said he : "I will bribe the servants ; if the door be shut in my face to 
day, I will not give up ; I will watch my opportunities ; I will meet 
him at the corners of the streets ; I will attend him to his home. Life 
nothing grants to man, save through great toil." 

60 — 74. The appeara7tce of Aristius Fuscus on the scene. 

While he is thus busy in his talk, lo, Fuscus Aristius meets us, a 
dear friend of mine, and one who knew the man right well. We stop ; 
we exchange salutations. I begin to pull and pinch his arms 
that are as dead, I nod, I wink to him to deliver me. The mis- 
chievous wit laughs, pretending not to know what I mean; I 
begin to wax warm with anger, observing to him, " Surely you did 
say you had something secret to speak to me of." Fuscus says, 
"Yes, I remember well ; but I will talk to you of it at a more convenient 
season ; to day is the thirtieth sabbath ; you would not, surely, scan- 
dalize the circumcised Jews." "Oh," say I, "I have no such scruples." 
" But I have," said he ; "I am a weaker brother, one of the many ; so 
pardon me; I will speak to you at another time." "Alas!" I ex- 
claimed, "Oh this day, how black it has arisen for me!" Off goes 
the wicked wag, and leaves me like a victim with the knife at my throat. 






I. io.] THE SATIRES, 127 

74 — 78. Horaces tine xpec ted delivery. 

By chance the plaintiff meets him face to face, who with loud voice 
shouts to him, "Whither, thou basest of men?" Then thus to me, " May 
I make you a witness?" I give my ear to be touched. He hurries 
the man off to trial ; on either part a shout was raised ; people rush 
together from all sides ; so was I saved by Apollo. 

X. 

Luciliiis is amended by Cato. 

[Lucilius, how full of your faults you are, I can clearly prove by the 
witness of Cato, your own advocate, for he tries to improve your ill- 
composed verses. This, as he was a better man, he did much 
more gently, and with a much nicer taste than that other critic, who, 
when a boy, was much encouraged by the whip and green rope, 
that so he might arise to help the ancient poets against modern 
fastidiousness, he, the most learned of grammarian knights. But to 
return.] 

I- — 19. Horace blames the roughness of Luciliiis. 

Yes, I did say that rough was the measure of the verses of Lucilius : 
who is such an unreasonable partisan of Lucilius as not to allow this ? 
And yet he is praised in the same satire for having rubbed the city 
down with so much Attic salt. However, though I allow this, I am 
not prepared to allow other points; for so I should admire even 
Laberius' farces, as though they were fine poems. For it is not 
enough to make the hearer's jaw open wide with laughter; although 
there is a certain merit even in this ; but conciseness is required, that 
the thoughts may run on, unembarrassed by words loading the wearied 
ears : we need, too, language sometimes severe, often gay, maintaining 
the character sometimes of an orator or poet, then awhile of a polished 
wit, who puts not forth his strength, but husbands it on purpose. A 
joke often decides weighty matters more powerfully and better than 
does severity. Those famous writers of the old comedy took their 
stand on this point, in this are worthy of all imitation ; though that 
coxcomb Hermogenes never reads them, nor that monkey, whose 
only skill is in singing the verses of Calvus and Catullus. 

20 — 39. Lucilius 1 much-praised medley of Greek and Latin words is 
not worth much, and is unnatural, and does not suit Horace's own 
unpretending ways. 

But it is said : " Lucilius did well in his medley of Greek and 
Latin words." " Ah, backward are ye in your learning, for how can 
ye think that to be difficult and admirable, which Pitholeon of Rhodes 
attained?" But you say: "A style neatly set in words of either 
language is charming, just as when one mixes a cask of Falernian 
wine with Chian." "Is this so," I ask you, "only when you write 
verses, or would you *do it, if you had to undertake the difficult de- 



I2 8 HORACE. [I. 10. 

fence of Petillus? While the brothers Poplicolae, Pedius and Cor- 
vinus, plead with energy in the Latin tongue, would you, forsooth, for- 
getting your fatherland and father, prefer to mix. words fetched from 
abroad with those of your own country, like the native of Canusium 
with his mongrel talk? And indeed I, born on this side the sea, tried 
once to write Greek verses : then Quirinus appeared to me in a vision 
after midnight, when dreams are true, and forbad me in these words : 
' 'Twere as mad to carry logs of wood into a forest, as to desire to fill 
up the numerous ranks of the Grecian host.' Bombastic Alpinus 
murders Memnon, and by his fictions muddles the source of the 
Rhine ; meanwhile I amuse myself with my writings not intended to 
contend for a prize in the temple with Tarpa for judge, nor to be 
brought out over and over again on the stage." 

40 — 49. Horaces contemporaries excelled in various branches of 
poetry j he himself ve?itured on Satire. 

Of all men living, Fundanius, you are the one to write pleasant 
chatty comedies, in which the cunning courtesan and Davus cheat 
old Chremes ; in trimeter iambics Pollio sings of regal feats ; spirited 
Varius draws forth the vigorous epic, as no one else can ; delicacy and 
grace is Virgil's gift from the Muses, whose joy is in the country. My 
kind of composition, attempted by Varro Atacinus and by some others 
without success, perhaps I can write better than they; inferior am I to 
the inventor, nor would I venture to pluck from his brows the crown 
that is fixed there with so much glory. 

50 — 71. His censure of Lucilius' 1 faults does not imply he thought 
himself his superior; Lucilius himself if now alive, would try to 
improve his own verses. 

No doubt I did liken Lucilius to a muddy stream, which often 
bears in its channel more that should be removed than left. Come 
now, prithee, do you, a scholar, find no fault in great Homer? Would 
courteous Lucilius desire no change in the tragedies of Accius? Does 
he not laugh at Ennius' verses as wanting in dignity, though he speaks 
of himself as not greater than those he censures? And why should not 
I, while reading the writings of Lucilius, raise the question, whether 
it was his own fault, or the impracticable nature of his subject, which 
denied to him verses more polished and with a softer flow than could 
be looked for from one who, contented with the mere making of an 
hexameter verse, was pleased to have written two hundred lines before 
dinner, two hundred after? Such was the genius of Etrurian Cassius, 
like the torrent of a rapid river: fame tells that the author's own 
works and writing-cases made his funeral pile. Granted, say I, 
Lucilius was a pleasant polished writer, more finished than the 
author of the rough kind of poetry untouched by the Greeks, and 
than the crowd of earlier poets : yet he also, had fate put off his days 
to our age, would rub out many a line, and prune all that exceeded a 
perfect finish, and, as he made his verse, would often scratch his pate, 
and bite his nails to the quick. 



I. io.J THE SATIRES. I2 g 

72 — 92; Horace, though he disregards a vain popularity, yet would 
be much grieved if his writings did not please the circle of his 
own accomplished friends. 

Often must' you erase, if you mean to write verses worthy of a 
second perusal; labour not for the admiration of the vulgar, be 
content with a few readers. Can you be so foolish as to desire 
your poems to be dictated in common schools? "I desire it not, 
satisfied if the knights applaud me," to use the words of bold Ar- 
buscula, who despised the rest of the spectators, when hissed off 
the stage. Am I to be disturbed by that offensive Pantilius, or 
troubled if Demetrius pulls my verses to pieces behind my back, 
or if that impertinent Fannius, the parasite of Hermogenes Tigel- 
lius, depreciates me? Only may my writings meet with the approval 
of Plotius and Varius, Maecenas and Virgil, of Valgius and excellent 
Octavius and Fuscus ; and may either Viscus praise them. Apart 
from vanity, I may name you, Pollio, and you, Messala, with your 
brother; and you too, Bibulus, and Servius, and you likewise, blame- 
less Furnius ; very many others, learned friends of mine, purposely I 
omit, hoping they may smile on my lines, be their merit what it may, 
for grieved should I be, if their pleasure fell short of my hopes. But 
you, Demetrius, and you, Tigellius, I bid you go and wail amidst the 
chairs of your female scholars. Haste, my boy, and quickly add these 
words to my book of satires. 



HOR. 



BOOK II. 



I. 



I — 23. A dialogue between Horace and the lawyer Trebatius, who 
advises Horace not to write Satires, but to write Caesar's praise. 
Horace professes his inability for such a?nbitious poetry, 

Horace. 
To some my satire seems too keen, and my work strained beyond 
its proper sphere ; others think all my compositions weak, and that 
a thousand verses as good as mine could be spun in a day. I come 
to consult you, Trebatius. 

Trebatius. 
Keep quiet. 

Horace. 
Do you mean, I am not to write verses at all? 

Trebatius. 
I say so. 

Horace. 
May I perish utterly, if your advice is not the best : but the trutt 
I cannot sleep. 

Trebatius. 

I say that those who cannot sleep soundly should anoint them- 
selves and thrice swim across the Tiber, and, as night draws on, soak 
themselves well with strong wine ; or, if such a mighty passion for 
writing possesses you, venture to sing the exploits of invincible 
Caesar ; you will gain many a reward for your labours. 

Horace. 
That were my ambition, excellent father, but I lack the ability ; for 
it takes more than a common writer to sing of ranks which bristle 
rough with darts, or Gauls who fall, the spear-head breaking short, or 
wounded Parthian sinking from his horse. 

Trebatius. 
But still you might write of Caesar, just and firm of purpose, as wise 
Lucilius did of Scipio. 

Horace. 
I will not be wanting to the occasion, when a fit one offers : but 
only at a lucky moment will the words of Flaccus find Caesar's ear 
attentive : he is like a horse, which if you stroke clumsily, out he 
kicks, guarded on every side. 

Trebatius. 
But better is this, than in stinging verse to wound Pantolabus the 
buffoon, and Nomentanus the spendthrift, when each one fears for 
himself, though you touch him not, and hates you. 



IT. i.] THE SATIRES. 



in 



24 — 34. Horace's taste is for safa'e. 

Horace. 
What would you have me do? Milonius dances, as soon as the 
fumes of wine reach and affect his head, and the lustres double ; 
Castor delights in steeds, Pollux, sprung from the same egg, in 
boxing; as many men alive, so many thousand tastes; my plea- 
sure is to get my words into lines in the style of Lucilius, a better 
man than either of us. He in days of old would trust his secrets to 
his books as to faithful companions ; let things turn out ill or well, 
to them he had recourse ; so that all the life of the old poet is open 
to our view, as though painted on votive tablet. 

34 — 60. Horace will not begin the attack on others, but will defend 
himself The instinct of self-preservation bids him. do' this. 

Him I follow, I half Lucanian, half Apulian ; for the colony of 
Venusia ploughs close up to the boundaries of the two countries ; 
old tradition tells how that, when the Samnites were driven out, they 
were sent thither to prevent the enemy's incursions on Rome through 
an open frontier, were it Apulia or Lucania that made violent attacks 
in war ; now this pen of mine shall not wantonly attack any living 
wight, and shall guard me, as sword kept close in sheath ; for why 
should I try to draw it, while safe from the attack of robbers? My 
prayer is this : " O Jove, father and king, my unused weapon would 
that rust may eat, nor any one injure me a lover of peace !" But he 
who troubles me — Better not touch me, I cry — he shall rue it, and be 
a marked man, and the talk of the whole town. Cervius, when angry, 
menaces us with laws and the judicial urn ; Canidia threatens her 
enemies with the poison Albutius used ; Turius speaks of a mighty 
mischief, if you go to law when he is a judge : now that each terrifies 
his foes by that in which lies his power, and that this is in obedience 
to the strong law of nature, you may follow me in inferring from 
the fact that the wolf attacks with fangs, and the ox with horns, 
so taught only by instinct. Scasva was a spendthrift; his mother 
would not die; trust her to him, for his right hand is too dutiful 
to commit any crime : strange, aye about as strange as that wolf 
does not attack with heel, or ox with tooth: but the deadly hem- 
lock will carry off his old mother in the poisoned honey. Not to 
delay you, I will only say that whether a calm old age awaits me, or 
death around me hovers with black wings, be I rich or poor, at 
Rome, or, should fortune so ordain, in exile, whate'er my life's com- 
plexion, write I will. 

60 — 79. Trebatius cautions Horace: he replies that Lucilius, though a 
keen satirist, was safe, and acceptable to the great men of his day. 

Trebatius. 
Young man, I fear, your days can ne'er be long; some of your 
great friends will strike you with a chill. 

9,-2 



l 3 2 HORACE. [II. 2. 

Horace. 
How so? Lucilius first of all men ventured to write in this style; 
he plucked off the hide, in which men walked so fair before the 
public view, while inwardly so foul ; were Laelius or he who drew 
from the overthrow of Carthage a title fairly won, offended by his 
satiric genius, or were they angry because Metellus was attacked, 
and Lupus overwhelmed by verses that brand with infamy? And yet 
he fastened on the chief men of the state, and on the people tribe by 
tribe ; for of a surety he favoured virtue only and her friends. Nay, 
when from the crowd and stage of life withdrew into retirement the 
virtue of Scipio, and the gentle wisdom of Laelius, they would trifle 
with him, and at their ease amuse themselves, until the herbs were 
dressed for dinner. Be I what I may, though far below Lucilius in 
station and genius, yet, that I have lived with the great, Envy can 
never deny, though fain she would, and while seeking to fix her tooth 
on something fragile, will meet with what is solid — unless, learned 
counsellor, you take some exception. 

79-86. 

Trebatius. 

Indeed I can propose no amendment here. But yet would I warn 
you to beware, lest ignorance of our sacred laws perchance bring you 
into trouble : there is a right of action and suit, if any one compose 
against another ill-natured libels. . 

Horace. 

Ill-written, if you please, sir ; but if one compose well-written verses, 
and Caesar's judgment approve them ; if one, whose life is blameless, 
has his bark at one who deserves disgrace ; why then, the prosecution 
will break down amidst laughter ; and you will leave scot-free. 

II. 

I — 22. The excellencies of a simple fare and of plenty of exercise. 

What and how great the virtue to live on little (nor is this my own 
doctrine, but these are the precepts of Ofellus, a rustic sage, wise with- 
out rules, a man of home-spun wit), learn, my friends, not amongst 
dishes and polished tables, where the eye is dazzled by senseless splen- 
dours, and the mind, staying itself on a lie, refuses the better part ; but 
here, before we dine, let us discuss the point. Why so ? I will explain, if 
I can. Badly is the truth weighed by any corrupt judge. Go, hunt 
the hare, and tire yourself by riding on an unbroken horse, or if Roman 
exercises exhaust you who have adopted Grecian fashions, and if the 
swift-flying ball or the quoit is your pleasure, your interest in which 
gently beguiles the severity of the toil, go, I say, strike the yielding 
air with the quoit ; then, when the toil has beaten out of you your 
daintiness, then, when you are dry and empty, despise, if you 
can, plain food, and refuse to drink any mead, unless made of the 
best wine and best honey. The butler is not at home, and stormy is 



II. 2.] THE SATIRES. I33 

the dark sea, and the fish are safe ; bread with salt will appease your 
growling stomach. How do you suppose this end is obtained? The 
height of the enjoyment is not, in the savour that costs so dear, but 
in yourself. Therefore earn you your sauce by hard exercise ; the 
man bloated and sickly-pale with gluttony, no oyster, or scar, or foreign 
lagois will delight. 

23 — 38. There are all kinds of fancies about what we eat. 

However, I shall hardly get out of you the desire of tickling your 
palate with a peacock on your table rather than a chicken ; vain ap- 
pearances mislead you ; just because the peacock is a rare bird, and a 
gold coin must buy it, and on its painted tail a gaudy show is spread 
to view ; as if that were aught to the point. For do you eat those ad- 
mired feathers? When the bird is dressed, where is its beauteous 
plumage ? Yet though there is no difference, you prefer one meat to 
the other : it is plain you are deceived by the difference of the ap- 
pearance. But grant this is so : yet what sense tells you whether this 
fish was a river pike or caught out at sea, nay, whether it had been 
tossed among the bridges or at the mouth of the Tuscan river? In 
your folly you praise a three-pound mullet ; and yet you must cut it in 
pieces to eat it with your bread. Your eye is your guide, I see \ where- 
fore then dislike large pikes? Because forsooth nature made these 
large, the others light of weight. A hungry stomach seldom scorns 
plain food. 



39~5 2 * Luxury so excessive did not always prevail; and 
still the remnants at our dinners of former simplicity. 

"Ah would that I could gaze on a lordly mullet stretched on lordly 
dish ! " so says the gourmand's throat that would not have disgraced the 
devouring Harpies. But come from heaven, ye siroccos, and cook 
these men their dainties ! Though without your breath the boar and 
fresh turbot are tainted, when a surfeiting plenty troubles the sickened 
stomach, which sated prefers turnips and acid elecampane. There 
still is left some old simplicity in the feasts of our great men, where 
cheap eggs and black olives yet find a place,. It is not so very long 
ago that the table of Gallonius the auctioneer was infamous for a 
sturgeon. What! did the sea produce no turbots in those days? Safe 
was the turbot then, safe in its nest the stork, until you epicures were 
taught by an authority, a would-be praetor. And now if any one 
issued an edict that roasted sea-gulls were delicious, the Roman 
youths, apt pupils in depravity, would yield obedience. 

53 — 69. Yet we should avoid the opposite fault of meanness. 

A mean style of living will differ from a moderate one in Ofellus' 
judgment ; indeed, in vain have you avoided one fault, only to turn 
aside perversely to its opposite. Avidienus, to whom the name of i dog ' 
clings, drawn from his nature, eats olives five years old, and the fruit 
of the. wild cornel tree, and is too stingy to draw his wine till it is 



I3 4 HORACE. [II. 2. 

turned ; as to his oil, its smell is intolerable, though he is celebrating 
the day that follows a wedding, or a birthday, or some other holyday, 
in robe whitened by the fuller ; from a horn of two pints' size with his 
own hand he drops this oil on the cabbage, liberal enough of his old 
vinegar. What manner of living then will a wise man adopt, and 
which of these two will he follow? "On one side a wolf attacks, on 
another a dog worries you," as they say. His mode of life is decent, 
who does not offend by meanness, and neither on this side nor on 
that is unfortunate in his style of living. For he will neither be like 
old Albutius, savage to his slaves, while apportioning to them their 
duties ; nor, as easy-natured Na2vius, will give his guests greasy water ; 
this too is a great fault. 

7° — 93* The disadvantages of excess, the advantages of a frugal 
diet ; the praise of the men of old. 

Now hear the great blessings of a frugal diet. In the first place 
good health ; how injurious variety of food is to a man, you may well 
believe by remembering how at times a simple fare has settled on 
your stomach ; whereas as soon as you mix boiled and roast, shell 
fish and thrushes, sweets into bile will turn, and the thick phlegm 
will cause intestine war. See how pale rises each guest from a dinner 
distracting by its variety ! Nay, the body laden with yesterday's excess 
weighs down its companion the soul, and fastens to the earth that par- 
ticle of the divine Essence. But the temperate man in an instant con- 
signs to sleep his refreshed body, then rises all fresh to his appointed 
duties. And yet he too now and then can pass to more generous fare, 
when the returning year shall bring some holy time, or he would in- 
vigorate his weakened frame, when too years advance, and the infir- 
mity of age looks for kinder treatment ; but what can you add to that 
indulgence anticipated by you in the days of youth and strength, if 
ill-health comes upon you, or sluggish age? Our fathers praised a 
high boar ; not, I suppose, because they had no nose, but this was 
their meaning, that a friend, arriving late, would eat it when tainted 
with more comfort than the greedy master of the house would dine on 
it though still fresh. Ob, that the early world had produced myself 
among heroes such as those! 

94 — 1 1 1. Luxury brings disgrace and ruin. If we are ever so rich, 
could not we spend our money better f The future too is uncertain 
for all. 

Do you not allow something to the voice of fame? Sweeter than 
song it fills the human ear. Great turbots on great dishes bring huge 
discredit and loss. Then angry is your uncle, all your neighbours, 
you condemn yourself, in vain you long for death, for in your need 
you lack a penny to buy a halter with. "Right is it," says the 
wealthy man, "for Trausius to be reproved by your words: but I 
have a noble revenue, and wealth ample for three monarchs." Be 
it so : is there nothing better on which to spend your superfluity? 



II. 3 .] THE SATIRES. I35 

Why is any worthy man so poor, and you so rich? Why are the 
ancient temples of the gods in ruins ? Why, worthless man, do you 
not measure out a portion of that great heap to your country? Ah, 
you alone of all, I suppose, can never meet with mishap ! Some day 
your enemies will have a great laugh at you. For which of the two 
can trust himself best to meet the accidents of chance, he who to 
superfluities accustoms his soul and pampered body, or he who, 
blessed with little and cautious for the future, in peace, as a wise 
man, provides fit arms for war? 

112 — 136. Ofellus describes Ms life; he was thrifty in former days, 
and so has been able courageously to meet unlooked-for misfortunes. 

To induce you to believe my words, I will tell you how, when a 
little boy, I remember Ofellus using his means then undiminished as 
moderately as now, when impaired. You may see him in the al- 
lotted farm with his cattle and his sons, a stalwart tenant-farmer, 
telling thus his tale : " It was no wont of mine on a working day to 
dine on more than vegetables, and a smoked ham. And if a friend I 
had not seen for long should visit me, or if to me when at ease some 
neighbour, a welcome guest, came walking through the rain, then we 
enjoyed ourselves, not with fish fetched from town, but on a chicken or 
kid; presently raisins and walnuts with dried figs graced our second 
course. After that, our amusement was to drink, with the law of 
forfeits for the master of our feast ; and Ceres, whom we honoured on 
condition that so with lofty stem she would deign to rise, cleared 
from our wrinkled brow with wine our serious cares. Let fortune 
raging stir new civil turmoils ; how much from my means will she 
take ? Have I, or you, my boys, been less sleek since this new landlord 
came? Nature has established neither him, nor me, nor any one, lord 
of this land in perpetuity ; he ejected me ; some villainy, or ignorance of 
tricky law, at any rate in the end an heir, who longer lives, will eject 
him. The farm is now Umbrenus'; once it was called Ofellus'; of 
no man is it the absolute property ; but passes to the use, now of me, 
now of a successor. Wherefore with courage live, and with courage- 
ous breasts stem adverse fate." 

III. 

I — 16. Damasififius, a new convert to Stoicism, tamits Horace with 
his Epicurean indolence. 

Damasippus. 
So seldom do you write, that not four times in a whole year do 
you call for your parchment, while you retouch your writings, and are 
out of temper with yourself, because, so freely indulging in wine and 
sleep, you give us no poems worthy of the talk of men. What will 
you produce now? For we look for something, as from the midst of 
the Saturnalia you have taken refuge here. In your retirement from 
the revels give us something worthy of your professions. Begin. Why, 
there is nothing. In vain you blame your pens, and make the inno- 



136 HORACE. [II. 3. 

cent wall suffer, born in an hour when gods were angry, aye and poets 
too. And yet yours was the countenance of one who threatened many 
glorious poems, if your little villa once received you at your leisure 
under its cosy roof. What did you mean by packing up Plato and 
Menander, and taking with you into the country such illustrious atten- 
dants as Eupolis and Archilochus? Are you trying to appease envy 
by the abandonment of virtue? You will be despised, wretched man. 
Avoid that wicked Siren, sloth; or else, whatever you have made your 
own in better days, you must be prepared now to resign. 

16 — 42. An account of Damasippus^ bankruptcy, his idle life as a 

virtuoso, his intended suicide, his changed life. 

Horace. 

May the gods and goddesses present you, Damasippus, with a 
barber in return for your good advice ! But how come you to know 
me so well? 

Damasippus. 

After the shipwreck of all my fortunes at the middle Janus, I have 
attended to other people's business, having been dashed by the storm 
out of my own. There was a time when I was fond of looking out for 
bronze vessels in which old Sisyphus, that man of craft, might have 
washed his feet; I judged what was sculptured unskilfully, what cast 
roughly ; as a connoisseur I valued this or that statue at a hundred 
thousand sesterces; gardens and fine houses I, above all other men, 
knew how to buy at a profit ; whence the crowded streets gave me the 
name of the very god of gain. 

Horace. 

Oh, I know, and wonder to find you cured of that disease. 
Damasippus. 

And yet the old disease was driven out in a strange way by a new 
one, as happens, when into the stomach passes the pain of the foot, 
side, or head ; or as from a lethargy up starts a man as a pugilist, and 
pounds his doctor. 

Horace. 

Provided anything like this does not happen to me, let it be as you 
like. 

.-•■ Damasippus. 

My friend, not to deceive yourself, know that you are mad and 
nearly all fools, if there be one word of truth in Stertinius' talk ; from 
his mouth I, an apt pupil, wrote down these admirable precepts on the 
day that he comforted me, and bid me nurse my philosophic beard, 
and return from the Fabrician bridge, no longer despondent. For 
after my bankruptcy I was going to throw myself with veiled head 
into the Tiber; then he, as my lucky genius, stood by me, and said : 
" Beware of doing anything unworthy of yourself; false shame," quoth 
he, "troubles you, who fear to be thought mad in the midst of madmen. 
For in the first place I will enquire what frenzy is ; and if it shall be 
found in you alone, I will not say a word more to stop you from 
dying bravelv." 



II. 3-1 THE SATIRES. 



[ 37 



43 — 63. The Stoic dogma that all the world is mad except the 
Stoics j though madness assumes different and even opposite forms. 

Him, whom perverse folly and ignorance of the truth blind and 
hurry onward, the Stoic Porch and school pronounce insane. This 
definition comprises nations and mighty monarchs, all men, saving 
only the philosopher. Now hear, why men who have put on you the 
name of madman, are all as demented as you are. It is as in a 
forest, where men stray in every direction, their error takes them out 
of the right path ; one wanders away to the left, another to the right ; 
each is equally in error, but they are misled by different ways: so 
believe yourself to be insane only so far, that the man who laughs at you 
is quite as mad with his own tail hanging behind him. One set of 
fools fear when there is no danger, complaining that fire, rocks, rivers 
are in their way on a level plain ; another set diverse from this, but 
not a whit more sensible, rush through fire and rivers ; there shout to 
them affectionate mothers, respectable sisters, relations, fathers, wives : 
"Look out," they bawl, "here is a deep pit, here a huge rock." But 
they are as deaf, as was drunken Fufius once ; he acted slumbering 
Ilione, and remained sound asleep, though two hundred thousand 
Catienuses shouted, " Mother, on you I call." Now I will prove to 
you that the mass of mankind are mad after a similar pattern. 

64 — 76. The extravagant man is insane; but it is a question, whether 
the money-lender is not equally so. 

Mad is 'Damasippus, the purchaser of old statues : sane, I suppose, 
is Damasippus' creditor; well, be it so : but if I say to you, "Accept 
some money that you need never return to me," are you mad, if you 
accept it, or would you not rather be so, if you refused the gain 
offered to you by propitious Mercury? Draw up ten obligations as 
strong as Nerius can draw them ; if that is not enough, add a 
hundred after the model of Cicuta, that knotty man of the law, add a 
thousand bonds ; yet from all will slip this scamp, this modern Proteus. 
When you drag him off to court, he will laugh immoderately, he will 
transform himself into a boar, bird, rock, or, if he pleases, a tree. 
A madman manages his affairs ill, a man in his senses well; then, 
believe me, Perillus is much more addie-pated, who gives you a 
security to sign, from which he can never recover the debt. 

77 — 81. The world is as one great asylum. There are four great 
classes of madmen. 

Attend and arrange your toga, all ye that are pale with the disease 
of perverse ambition, or avarice, of luxury, or gloomy superstition, or 
have any other fever of the mind : come near me all in order, and I 
will prove that you are mad, every one of you. 



138 HORACE. [II. 3. 

82 — 103. The avaricious are as numerous a class as any, of whom 
Staberius was a notable instance, yet Aristippus his opposite was 
nearly as bad. 

By far the largest quantity of hellebore should be administered to 
misers ; indeed, perhaps, sound reason would assign to them all the 
crops of Anticyra. The epitaph of Staberius was the sum total of 
his property : this his heirs had to engrave on his monument, being 
bound by the penalty of exhibiting to the people a hundred pairs of 
gladiators, and a banquet at the discretion of Arrius, and as much 
corn as the province of Africa reaps. "This is my will," wrote 
Staberius; "as to whether it is a perverse one or a right one, do 
not attempt to lecture me." Now, I suppose, this was a proof of 
the foresight of Staberius. For what was his meaning, when he 
directed his heirs to put on the stone of his grave the sum total of 
his property? This, surely, that all his life long he considered poverty 
a shocking vice, and guarded against nothing so carefully ; if he had 
perchance died poorer by a single farthing, so much a worse man 
would he have thought himself; for all things, virtue, character, 
honour, things celestial and terrestrial alike, are the servants of fair 
wealth : and he who amasses it, he is illustrious, valiant, just. What, 
and wise too? Even so, and a king too, and whatever he has a 
fancy to be. This his wealth, earned by his virtue, he believed would 
redound to his glory. In no ways like him was the Greek, Aristippus, 
who bid his servants throw away his gold in the midst of Africa, 
because, forsooth, the weight of it delayed their journey. Which of 
the two is the greater madman? Nothing is proved by an instance 
which solves one hard case by another. 

104 — 123. The love of hoarding money is perfectly unreasonable, but 
so common that we do not see its utter folly. 

If a man were to buy up lyres, and store them together when 
bought, being a person without any taste for music or any accomplish- 
ment; if knives and lasts, he who was no shoemaker; sails, he who was 
set against a merchant's life ; all would with reason pronounce such 
men crazy and demented. HowdifTers from them the man who amasses 
golden coins, ignorant how to use his stores, fearing to touch them, as 
though it would be sacrilege? One stretched at full length watches by 
the side of a great heap of corn, continually, with a big club in his hand ; 
he, the hungry owner of it all, does not dare to touch a single grain, 
and would rather eat bitter leaves, so stingy is he; in his cellar 
are casks of Chian and old Falernian, a thousand of them, nay, that 
is a mere nothing, three hundred thousand; and yet he drinks sour 
vinegar ; see, he sleeps on straw, he, a man in his eightieth year, while 
coverlets, on which feast chafers and moths, lie spoiling in his 
chests : still, I suppose, few would count this miser insane, because a 
large majority of mankind are troubled with the same malady. That 
a son, or perhaps a freedman, may inherit and waste all this pro- 



II. 30 THE SA TIRES. 



x 39 



perty, do you so guard it, you old dotard, Heaven's enemy? Is it that 
you dread want? Little will each day dock from your savings, if you 
begin to dip your cabbage in better oil, and to anoint your scurfy- 
pate. Why, if almost anything is enough for you, do you perjure, 
steal, plunder from every where? Is a man like you sane? 

1 2 8 — 14 1 . The madness of Orestes preceded, not followed, the murder 
. of his mother. 

Supposing you were to take to killing with stones the public, and 
your own servants bought with your own money, all would cry out 
against you as a madman, boys and girls alike : when you strangle 
your wife, or poison your mother, are you sane? Why not? for you 
do not the deed at Argos, nor is it with the sword that you kill your 
mother, as did Orestes, who was mad. But now do you think that it 
was only after the murder of his mother that Orestes went mad? Was 
he not rather driven into frenzy by those wicked Furies, before he 
pierced his mother's throat with the reeking point of his sword? 
Nay, from the time that Orestes passed for being unsound of mind, 
he did nothing in any way to be condemned ; he never dared wound 
with his sword either his friend Pylades, or his sister Electra; he 
merely abused both, calling one a Fury, the other some other name 
suggested by his magnificent anger. 

142—157. The story of Opimius, in whom the ruling passion was 
strong in death. 

Poor was Opimius, for all his stores of silver and gold ; wine of 
Veii was his beverage on holidays out of a cup of Campanian earth- 
enware, on working-days he drank wine turned sour; once he fell 
into a deep lethargy ; and round about his coffers and locks his heir 
was running in extravagant joy. But he had a doctor very prompt 
and trusty, who roused him in the following way: he ordered a table 
to be set, on it to be poured sacks of coin, and sent for many to 
count the money ; in this way he wakens up the dying man ; then 
says to him: "Unless you guard your property, a greedy heir will 
presently carry it off." "What, in my lifetime?" says Opimius. "Be 
on your watch then, that you do not die ; give your mind to this." 
"What would you have me to do ?" says the sick man. "Your blood is 
poor, and your powers will fail you, unless a great stay from food sup- 
ports your sinking stomach. Do you hesitate? Come now, take this 
little cup of rice-gruel." "What did it cost?" says he. "Oh ! very little." 
"But how much?" "Eight pence." "Alas," says the sick man, "what 
odds, whether I die by disease, or by theft and robbery?" 

158 — 167. As in the body, so in the soul freedom from one evil docs 
not imply 'freedom from all. 

Who then, after all, is sane? " He who is free from folly." What, as 
to the miser ? " He is fool and madman." But if a man is not a miser, 
does it follow he is sane? "Certainly not." How so, Sir Stoic? "I will 



140 HORACE. [II. 3. 

explain. ' The patient has no disease of the stomach,' imagine Cra- 
terus to be the speaker: 'is he therefore well, and may he get up?' 
'No,' says that eminent physician; 'his ribs or his kidneys are 
attacked by acute disease/ So this man is not perjured, he is no 
mean miser: let him offer his pig to the propitious Lares : not so, for 
he is ambitious and rash ; therefore let him take ship for Anticyra. 
It is all the same, whether you present all your substance to a greedy 
gulf, or never use your savings." 

168 — 1 86. Oppidius on his death-bed warned his two sons, each of an 

opposite folly. 

Servius Oppidius had two farms at Canusium, he was possessed of 
an ancestral fortune, and 'tis said that he divided them between his 
two sons, and on his death-bed gave them this advice : " I have ob- 
served you, Aulus, carrying carelessly in the folds of your toga your 
dice and walnuts, giving them away, throwing them about in play ; 
you, Tiberius, gloomily counting them, hiding them in holes ; I am 
greatly frightened, lest opposite kinds of madness should possess 
you ; and one follow the steps of Nomentanus, the other of Cicuta. 
Wherefore I entreat you both by our household-gods, one not to 
lessen, the other not to increase the property your father thinks suf- 
ficient, and nature sets as a limit. Further, that vainglory may not 
tickle you, I will bind you both by this oath : whichever of you shall 
be elected an aedile or praetor, let him be as one outlawed, and ac- 
cursed. Are you going to waste your substance on vetches, beans, 
and lupines, that with broad toga you may strut in the circus, or 
have a bronze statue set up to your honour, stripped of your lands, 
stripped of the money of your inheritance, you madman ; that, for- 
sooth, you may get the applause which Agrippa gets, like a cunning 
fox mimicking a noble lion." 

187 — 223. Ambition is madness, as is shown by the instance of 
Agamemnon, told in the form of a dialogue. 

" Son of Atreus, why do you forbid any one to think of burying 
Ajax?" "I am a king." "I ask no more, being but one of the com- 
mon people." "And just also are my commands; but if I seem to 
any one unrighteous, I allow him with impunity to say what he 
thinks." "Mightiest of monarchs, may the gods grant to you to take 
Troy, and bring your fleet safe home ! Am I really allowed to ask for 
an opinion, and give one in my turn?" "Yes, ask what you please." 
"Well then, I ask, why rots the body of Ajax, a hero second to 
Achilles alone, often the illustrious saviour of the Greeks, so that 
Priam and Priam's people rejoice at his having no burial, by whose 
valour so many of their youths lost a sepulchre in their native soil?" 
"Because in his madness he slaughtered a thousand sheep, crying out 
that he was killing renowned Ulysses, and Menelaus, and myself." 
"But you, when before the altar you place your darling daughter 
at Aulis in the stead of a heifer, and sprinkle her head with meal and 



II. 3-] THE SATIRES. I4I 

salt, you wicked man, are you not deranged?" "How so, sirrah?" 
"Mad as he was, when he laid the cattle low with his sword, what did 
Ajax do? He did no violence to wife or son; he uttered many a 
curse on the Atridse, but Teucer and even Ulysses he never in- 
jured." "But I, that I might start on their way the ships fastened 
to the unfriendly shore, knowing full what I did, appeased Heaven 
with blood." "Yes with your own blood, you raving madman." "My 
blood certainly, but no madman am I." "He who entertains imagi- 
nations opposed to truth, and bewildered by the confusion of crime, 
he will be considered insane, and, whether it be through folly or 
passion that he errs, it makes no difference. Ajax slew innocent 
lambs, and was insane ; you, knowing what you were doing, com- 
mitted a crime for vain renown, and are you in your senses, and is your 
mind, so swollen with ambition, free from fault? Supposing a man 
was fond of carrying about in a litter a pretty lamb, was to treat it as 
a daughter, provide for it dress, maids, gold, call it by endearing 
names, betroth it to a gallant gentleman ; would not the prsetor in- 
terfere, and take from him every legal right? And so the care of him 
would pass to his sane relations. And if one sacrifices a daughter as 
though she were a dumb lamb, is he in his senses? you cannot say 
he is. Thus, where there is depravity and folly, there is the very 
height of madness; the criminal is raving mad, and he who is 
dazzled by the glitter of glory, has thundering round him Bellona, 
goddess who delights in blood-stained votaries." 

224 — 246. Extravagance is a third form of insanity. The instances 
of Nornentanus, of Clodius, and the sons of Arriits. 

Come now, let us together attack extravagance, and extravagant 
Nomentanus : for right reason will demonstrate that spendthrifts are 
fools and madmen. No sooner had he inherited a thousand talents, 
than praetor-like he issues his decree for fishmonger, fruiterer, 
poulterer, perfumer, all the ungodly set of the Tuscan street, fowl- 
fattenei', parasites, all the market, and all Velabrum, to come to his 
house next morning. Naturally, they came in crowds; the spokes- 
man was the pander: "Whatever I have, whatever each of these have 
at home, is, believe us, at your service; send for it to-day or to- 
morrow." Now hear the reply of this considerate young man: "In 
Lucanian snows you sleep booted, that I may have a boar for dinner ; 
you again sweep the stormy seas for fish. Idle man am I, unworthy 
of such possessions ; take it ; receive a million sesterces ; you, three 
million, from whose house comes running your wife, when called at 
the dead of night." The son of iEsopus took from the ear of Metella 
a famous pearl, and with the idea, as I suppose, of swallowing a mil- 
lion sesterces in one gulp, diluted it in vinegar ; how was he less mad 
than if he had thrown it into the rapid river or the sewer? The 
children of Quintus Arrius, a precious pair, twins in profligacy, in 
childish folly and depraved fancies used to lunch on nightingales, a 
most costly dish. How would you set them down? Would you mark 
them with white chalk or black charcoal? 



1 42 HORACE. [II. 3. 



247 — 280. Love is as silly as any childish game., it is inconsistent, 
superstitious, doting, and often leads to crime. 

If a man with a beard found delight in building baby-houses, in 
yoking mice to a toy-cart, in playing at odd and even, in riding on a 
long stick, one would say that madness possessed him. But if right 
reason demonstrates that love is something still more childish, and 
that it makes no difference, whether you are busy with raising your 
toy-houses in the sand, as you did when three years old, or whether 
you maunder troubled with love, I demand of you, -Will you do as 
Polemo did, when he became a changed man? Will you lay aside the 
livery of your mental malady, the bandages, cushions, neck- wrappers ; 
as 'tis said that he, after his drinking bout, stealthily plucked the 
chaplets from his neck, as soon as he heard the reproving voice of 
his fasting tutor? You offer fruit to a sulky child: he refuses it; you 
say "Take it, darling :" he says he will not: if you do not offer it, he 
longs for it : how differs from the child the lover, when the door is 
shut in his face, and he deliberates, shall he go or not, and yet is sure 
to return, even if not sent for, and hates the doors, and yet cannot 
tear himself from them? "What, shall I not go, now that she makes 
the advances? Or rather, shall I not resolve to put an end to my 
pains? She has turned me out of the house : now she calls me back : 
shall I return? No, not if she entreats me." Now hear what says the 
slave, a deal wiser than his master: "Sir, things without method and 
sense cannot be dealt with on any system or method. Such is the 
evil nature of love ; it means war, then peace : it is as changeable as 
the weather, it floats as if by blind chance ; and if any one tries to 
make it regular in his own case, he will manage about as well as if 
he were to endeavour to be mad on a regular system and method." 
What! you pick out the pips of Picenian fruit, and rejoice, if you 
happen to hit the ceiling with them; are you in your senses? On 
your old palate you strike out lisping words : are you less silly than the 
child that builds card-houses? Add blood to folly, and stir up the fire 
with a sword. To take a late instance, Marius stabbed Hellas, and 
then threw himself down ; was he not a lunatic? or would you acquit 
the man of madness, to find him guilty of a crime, applying, according 
to usage, cognate terms to things ? 

281— 299. Superstition is a fourth kind of madness. 

There was a freedman, he was old and sober, in the morning he 
would wash his hands, then would run to the places where streets 
meet, and there would he pray, "Deliver me, yes, me alone from 
death: what so much to ask? 'Tis a light thing for the gods to do :" 
the man was sound in both his ears and eyes ; but if he were a slave 
in the slave-market, his master, unless fond of a lawsuit, would not 
have warranted his reason. Now Chrysippus places this class also 
in the house of Menenius so fruitful in madmen. "Thou, Jove, givest 
great pains of body, then takest them away;" so says the mother of a 



II. 3.] THE SATIRES. 



J 43 



boy who has been ill in bed for five long months, " If the chilly quartan 
ague leaves my child on the morning of the day of thy appointed 
feast, naked shall he stand in Tiber's stream." Good luck or the 
doctor raises the sick boy from imminent danger; but the crazy 
mother will be the murderer of her child, by sticking him up on the 
cold bank, and so bringing back the fever. Now with what malady 
is her mind disordered? With superstition. These were the arms 
which my friend Stertinius, the eighth wise man, put in my hands ; 
hereafter no one can call me madman with impunity, for he who 
so names me, shall hear as much in reply, and shall be told to look 
behind on what hangs from his own back, though he sees it not. 

300 — 326. Dialogue between Horace and Damasippus, in which 
Horace playfully alludes to his own foibles, his airs, his poetry, 
his hot temper, his ?nany loves, 

Horace. 

Sir Stoic, enlighten me, and so may you after your losses sell all 
your property at an advantage ! Since there are so many kinds of 
folly, what is my particular one? To myself I seem sane. 

Damasippus. 

No wonder: when mad Agave was carrying the head of her un- 
happy son torn from the trunk, did she think herself mad? 

Horace. 

Well, I confess my folly ; one must needs yield to the force of truth ; 
I allow that I am mad ; only do you declare to me, what you consider 
to be my besetting malady. 

Damasippus. 

Hear : in the first place you are building, which means that you 
imitate the tall, you, a man who from top to toe measure about 
two feet; and yet you laugh at the airs and gait of Turbo in his 
armour, a man with a soul too big for his body: how are you less 
ridiculous than he? Is it right that you should do all that Maecenas 
does, you who are so unlike him, and so inferior in a rivalry with so 
great a man? A frog was absent when its young ones were crushed 
by the foot of a calf; one only escaped, and told its mother the whole 
tale, how a huge beast had squeezed to death its brothers and sisters. 
The parent asked "How big was the monster?" Purring herself out 
she said, "Could it have been as big as this?" "Bigger by half," said 
the young one. "What, as big as this?" said the old one. As she 
kept puffing herself more and more, the young one said, "If you 
burst yourself you will never be as big." Now this little simile suits 
you very well. To this add your poetry, which is as if one said, 
"Throw oil on fire:" if any man is in his senses who composes poetry, 
then you are. I say nothing of your dreadful temper, 

Horace. 

Enough, stop. 

Damasippus. 

Or your style beyond your means. 



T44 HORACE. [II. 4 . 

Horace. 
Damasippus, mind your own business. 
Damasippus. 
Or your thousand ravings for a thousand loves. 

Horace. 

greater madman, be merciful at last to your inferior in madness ! 

IV. 

1 — 11. An ironical glorification of the precepts of 'gastronomy ', which 

are as follows. 

Horace. 
Whence and whither, Catius ? 

Catius. 

1 have no time to stop, being eager to commit to memory by 
my method precepts which throw into the shade those of Pythagoras, 
and of him whom Anytus prosecuted, and of learned Plato. 

Horace. 
I confess my fault in interrupting you at such an unlucky moment ; 
but kindly pardon me, I pray. If anything slips your memory, you 
will presently recover it ; be this a gift of nature, or the result of art, 
anyhow you are admirable. 

Catius. 
Nay, this was what I was thinking of, how to retain all the points, 
the subject being so delicate, and expressed so delicately. 

Horace. 
Tell me the name of the author. Was he a Roman or a foreigner ? 

Catius. 
I will myself repeat to you the precepts, but must withhold the 
name of the author. 

1 2 — 34. Precepts touching eggs, cabbages, mushrooms, mead, shell- 
fish, and other points. 

Remember to put on your table eggs of a tapering shape, as having 
more taste, and whiter than round ones ; being thick too, they contain 
the yolk of a male chicken. Cabbages grown in dry soil are 
sweeter than those that come from the market grounds near Rome ; 
nothing is more insipid than the produce of a wet garden. If sud- 
denly in the evening a friend looks in upon you, to prevent the hen 
just killed from being tough, I advise you to dip it still alive 
into mead made of Falernian wine ; so will it be tender. The best 
sort of mushrooms are those gathered from meadows ; others one can ill 
trust. That man will pass his summers in health, who ends his morning 
meal with black mulberries picked from the tree before the sun is 
oppressive. Aufidius had a way of making his mead of strong Faler- 
nian ; it was a great fault, because nothing but what is mild should be 
put into the empty stomach ; mild should be the mead with which the 
stomach is washed. If your sluggish bowels refuse to act, limpet and 
common shell-fish will remove the obstacle, or the low-growing herb 



II. 4 .] THE SATIRES. I45 

of sorrel with a cup of white Coan wine. With increasing moons in- 
crease the slippery shell-fish ; but every sea does not produce the finest 
sort. The peloris of the Lucrine lake is better than the murexr of 
Baise, oyster-beds are at Circeii, from Misenum come sea-urchins : the 
broad scallop is the glory of luxurious Tarentum. 

35 — 62. More precepts about dinners, wines, and other points. 
Money will not do every thing. The excellence of the art tested by 
its power of provoking appetite. 

Let no ordinary man lightly take to himself the science of dinner- 
parties, unless he has first duly considered the delicate question of 
taste. For it is not enough to have cleared the fishmonger's board at 
a great cost, unless one knows which fish should be done in sauce, 
and which, when fried, will tempt the sated guest to raise himself on 
his elbow. An Umbrian boar fed on holm-oak acorns weighs down 
the dishes of the host who eschews insipid meat ; as to the Laurentian, 
he is a bad beast, fattened on sedge and reeds. Roes reared in 
a vineyard are not always eatable. The professed epicure chooses 
the wings of a hare fruitful in young. Touching the nature and 
proper age of fish and birds, no palate before mine had considered 
and revealed the truth. Some men's genius is poor, only equal to 
the invention of new pastry. But it is by no means enough to spend 
all one's care on a single point ; as if one only tried to give good wine, 
and then were indifferent as to the oil in which the fish was dressed. 
Expose Massic wine to a cloudless sky ; all the thickness in it will be 
cleared away by the night air, and the bouquet that affects the brain 
will pass off; the same wine strained through linen will lose its full 
flavour. He who skilfully mixes wine of Surrentum with the dregs of 
Falernian, thoroughly collects the sediment with a pigeon's egg, for 
the yolk sinks to the bottom, carrying with it all foreign substances. 
To the drinker, if he flags, give fresh spirit by fried prawns and African 
snails : lettuce rises on the acid stomach after wine ; more and more 
by ham and sausages does it crave to be stimulated and restored ; nay, 
prefers any thing brought smoking-hot from dirty eating-houses. 

63 — 75. The rules about sauce; directions about the fruit. 

It is worth while thoroughly to master the. qualities of compound 
sauce. The simple consists of sweet olive oil ; this ought to be mixed 
with rich wine, and with the same pickle of which the Byzantine jar 
smells so strongly. When this has been made to boil with a mixture 
of chopped herbs, and has stood to cool, after Cilician saffron has been 
sprinkled over it ; then do you add besides the oil of the pressed berry 
of the olive of Venafrum. The fruit of Tibur is inferior in juice 
to that of Picenum, but superior in appearance. The grape of Venu- 
cula is good for preserving in jars ; the Alban is best when thoroughly 
smoked. On enquiry, you will find that I the first of all men placed 
round the table on clean dishes this kind of grape together with 
apples, lees, and fish-pickle, white pepper sprinkled through a sieve, 
and black salt. 

HUR. IO 



146 HORACE. [IT. 5. 

j6— 87 . Little things make all the difference i7i a dimter. 

It is a monstrous sin, after you have spent three thousand sesterces 
at the market, then to cramp the fish, that once swam freely through 
the sea, in a narrow dish. It gives quite a turn to the stomach, if a 
servant, after licking the stolen bits, soils the cup with his greasy 
hands, or if nasty dirt sticks to an ancient goblet. On common 
brooms, napkins, sawdust, how little need be spent ! But if these things 
be neglected, scandalous is the crime. What ! will you sweep tesse- 
lated pavement with a dirty palm-broom, and put unwashed coverlets 
over cushions bright with Tyrian dye? Do you forget that as such 
details need less care and expense, so to neglect them is more culpable, 
than to omit such luxuries as are granted to the tables of the rich 
alone ? 

88 — 95. Horace implores Catius to take him with him to the next 

lectures. 
Horace. 

Learned Catius, in the name of Heaven and of our friendship, re- 
member to take me with you, whenever you go to such lectures. Strong 
is your memory, and accurately you repeat all ; and yet as a mere re- 
porter you cannot give me so much delight. There is too the look 
and bearing of the great man ; blest were you in the sight of him, yet 
for that very reason you prize it not to the worth : but I feel no slight 
desire to approach the hidden sources, and to quaff draughts of the 
wisdom of such a blessed life. 

V. 

1 — 8. Opening dialogue between Ulysses and Teiresias. 

Ulysses. 
Answer me still another question, Teiresias, besides all you have 
told me. By what ways and means can I repair my broken fortunes ? 
You laugh: why so? 

Teiresias. 
What! you man of wiles, are you hot content with the promise of a 
return to Ithaca, and of a sight of your household gods? 

Ulysses. 
O seer, that ne'er did lie to mortal man, you see how I am to return 
home, according to your prophecy, naked and needy, and to find there 
neither my store-room of wine, nor my flock untouched by the suitors ; 
and well you know that without money both birth and virtue are as 
worthless as sea-weed. 

9 — 22. Ulysses •, says the seer, must make up his mind to be a fortune- 
hunter ', or poor he will remain. 

Teiresias. 
Since, coming straight to the point, you say that your dread is poverty, 
hear by what method you can become rich. A thrush, wc will suppose, 



II. 5-] THE SATIRES. I47 

or some other delicacy comes as a present to you ; let the bird wing 
its way to some rich and splendid house, where the master is old : or 
your well-cultivated farm bears sweet fruit, or other produce meet for 
offerings ; even before the household god let the rich man enjoy this, 
the rich man deserves your veneration most. Now, be he ever so 
perjured, ever so low-born, stained with a brother's blood, nay a run- 
away slave, for all that, if walking with him at his request, never de- 
cline to give him the inside. 

Ulysses. 

Do you mean that I am to give the wall to that filthy Dama ? Not 
so at Troy did I bear myself, but ever vied with better men than my- 
self. 

Teiresias. 

Ah well, you will be a poor man. 

Ulysses. 

I'll bid my stalwart soul endure e'en this. Already worse I've 
borne. Continue then, and tell me whence I may draw wealth and 
stores of brass. 



23 — 44. The arts of the fortune-hunter, who will support the rich 
in their lawsuits, and to curry favour with them will endure any 
toil and indignity. 

Teiresias. 
Well, I have told you, and again I tell you ; everywhere craftily 
fish for legacies from old gentlemen; perhaps one or two shrewd 
ones will nibble the bait off the hook, and then escape from your 
snares, but do not you give up hope, or abandon your art, because 
once baffled. If on any occasion there is a lawsuit in the forum, of 
greater or less importance, do you see whether one of the two be 
rich and childless, and though he be a rascal, who with wanton 
audacity brings an action against a better man, yet do you be the 
advocate of the scoundrel, making no account of the opponent, 
however superior in character and the justice of his cause, if he 
has a son at home, or a fruitful wife. Address the rich man, 
"Quintus" for instance, or "Publius," (the prasnomen tickles the 
delicate ear,) "your merit has attached me to you ; I know the 
quibbles of law; I can defend a cause; I would let any one 
put out my own eyes rather than slight you, or rob you of a rotten 
nut ; my chief care is that you should not lose a farthing, or be the 
laughingstock of any man." So bid him go home, and take care 
of his dear self; do you become his pleader. Endure still and 
persevere, whether the flaming red dog-star is splitting the mute 
statues, or Furius, distended with rich tripe, spits hoary snow all 
over the wintry Alps. Then will some one nudge another stand- 
ing near with his elbow, and say: "Do you not see how untiring he 
is, how useful to his friends, how keen in their service?" So will 
more tunnies swim up, and your fishpools be better stocked. 



I4 8 HORACE. [II. 5. 

45 — 57. Observe when a rich marl's only child is sickly. Be careful 
not to overdo your trade. 

If any one's son, the heir of his great fortune, be in poor health, lest 
transparent attentions to a bachelor or widower betray you, do you 
creep gently by assiduous court into the hope of being put in the will 
as heir in remainder, and should any chance remove the child to the 
regions below, of taking the vacant place: this game seldom dis- 
appoints. Perhaps the will is handed to you to read, forget not 
to decline this, and to push it aside, yet so as by side-glance to 
catch the contents of the second line of the first page ; swiftly run 
your eye across to see whether you are sole heir 01* coheir with 
many. Often will a shrewd man, once a quinquevir, now recast 
as a notary, baffle the gaping crow, and the fortune-hunter Nasica 
will be the laughingstock of Coranus. 

58 — 83. The story of Nasica. The legacy-hunter must be prepared 
to flatter and oblige his rich friend. 

Ulysses. 

Are you frenzied, or purposely do you mock me with obscure 
prophecies ? 

Teiresias. 

O son of Laertes, whatsoever I say will happen, or it will not : 
divination is a gift to me from great Apollo. 

Ulysses. 

However, declare the meaning of the story just alluded to, if it is 
lawful so to do. 

Teiresias. 

In the days when shall live the young hero, the terror of Parthia, a 
child of the race of the noble ^Eneas, and shall be mighty by land 
and sea, the gallant Coranus shall marry the tall daughter of Nasica, 
a man who will object to pay in full. Then the son-in-law will act 
thus ; he will hand his father-in-law the will, and beg him to read it : 
Nasica will often decline, but at last will take it, and read it by 
himself, and will then find for himself and his family a legacy of 
disappointment and grief. I have this further advice to give you ; 
perhaps an artful woman or a freedman manages the old dotard, 
do you make common cause with him or her ; praise them, so will 
you be praised yourself when absent. This helps, no doubt, but it 
is far the best to take by storm the citadel in the person of the old 
man himself. If he writes wretched verses, as madmen often do, you 
must praise them. If he is a libertine, do not wait for his demands, 
but, before he asks, obligingly hand over Penelope to your better. 

Ulysses. 
What say you? do you think Penelope could be induced, that good 
and virtuous lady, whom the suitors could not tempt to leave the 
paths of rectitude? 



II. 6.1 THE SATIRES. 1 49 

Teiresias. 
Ah, well ; but this was because those young gentlemen, who visited 
your house, did not like giving, their minds were set on eating more 
than on love ; in these circumstances Penelope was virtuous, no doubt ; 
but let her once get the taste of gain in partnership with you from 
one old rich man, she will be like the hound, which nothing can 
drive from the greased hide. 

84 — 98. The story of the old lady at Thebes. Caution is needed 
for the fortune-hunter. He must persevere even to the end. 

I will tell you what happened when I was an old man. There 
was at Thebes a roguish old woman: she, according to directions 
in her will, was buried as follows : her body was anointed with 
plenty of oil, and her heir had to carry it on his bare shoulders ; 
this was to see whether she could slip out of his hands after her 
death : no doubt, because he never let her go during her lifetime. 
You must be wary in your approaches, neither deficient in attentions, 
nor excessive beyond measure. The peevish and morose are offended 
by one obtrusively garrulous : but then neither will silence do. You 
must be the Davus of the play, standing with head bent forward, much 
like one struck with awe. Make your advances most obsequiously; 
if the breeze freshens, warn him, "Be careful, sir, cover your precious 
head;" get him out of a crowd by pushing for him; lend your ear 
to his babbling. Or if he is ridiculously fond of praise, then until he 
shall lift up his hands to heaven, and say, "Hold, enough," do you 
with praises press him, and till his swelling vanity with empty words, 
as skin with air. 

99 — 1 io» After your success, still keep up appearances, and look out 
for fresh windfalls. 

And now his death relieves you from your long attention and 
servitude, and wide awake you hear read: "I bequeath to Ulysses 
a fourth part:" then do you drop in such words as these: "And is 
my old comrade Dama really gone? Ah, where shall I find so true, 
so honest a friend?" If you can manage it, shed a tear or two: the 
countenance betrays joy, but do you disguise it. If the monument 
is left to your discretion, be liberal in the raising of it ; let the 
neighbourhood praise the handsome funeral. Perhaps one of your 
coheirs is elderly and has a bad cough, then say to him, that if he 
would like to be a purchaser of a farm or house in your share, you 
would gladly convey it to him for a nominal consideration. But me 
imperious Proserpine drags away ; farewell and live prosperous. 

VI. 

1 — 15. Horace's contentment; his prayer to Heaven. 

Often did I pray that I had a piece of land, not so very large, 
with a garden, and near the house a perennial spring of water, and 
a little wood* .besides. Heaven has done more and better for me 



i5° 



HORACE. [II. 6. 



than my wishes. It is well; son of Maia, I ask nothing further, 
save that thou wilt continue to me these blessings. I trust that 
I have not increased my property by any evil arts, and that I am 
not going to diminish it by vice, or negligence : I offer no such 
foolish prayers as these; "O would that mine were the corner, which 
now spoils the shape of my little farm !" or, "Would that some lucky 
chance would discover for me a pot of money, as once to him, 
who was a tenant-farmer, and, finding a treasure, bought the very 
farm which he had tilled, for Hercules proved a friend and enriched 
him!" I trust what I have makes me thankful and content; if this 
be so, then thus I pray, "O make for me, Heaven, my cattle fat, 
and all I have heavy, except my wit, and as thou usest to be, still 
be my best guardian." 

1 6 — 39. The happiness of his placid life in the country coiitrasted 
with his troubles and plagues at Rome. 

So when I have retreated from the city into the mountains, and 
my country citadel, shall not my retirement be the favourite subject 
of my satires, and of my prosaic muse? There evil ambition cannot 
hurt me, nor the leaden sirocco, nor unhealthy autumn, that brings 
gain to Death by the funerals of the young. Thou father of the 
dawn, or Janus, if so thou hadst rather be addressed, from whom 
is the beginning to mortals of work and toils of life, for such is 
Heaven's will, do thou be the first subject of my song. At Rome I 
am hurried away by thee to be security. Bestir yourself, thou 
sayest to me, lest another do his duty to a friend before you. 
So let the North wind sweep the earth, let winter whirl the snowy 
day in shorter circle, go I must. There must I speak in clear 
and distinct voice words for which I may have afterwards to smart, 
and then I have to push through the crowd, and hurt those who 
get in my way. With bitter curses angrily plies me some one : 
"Madman, what do you want, what mean you that you so strike 
all that stop you, as you hasten back to Maecenas with something 
on your mind?" Now that this is my delight, yea, and as honey 
to me, I deny not. And yet, as soon as I get to the Esquiline 
hill, once the abode of gloom, other peoples' affairs jump round my 
head and side in hundreds. " Remember that Roscius entreated 
you to be at the Puteal before eight in the morning to-morrow, 
to be a witness for him." "The notaries begged you, Quintus, not 
to forget to return to-day touching that fresh and important matter 
of common interest." "Manage to get Maecenas to set his seal to 
that document." If I say, I will try my best, then he says urgently, 
"You can, if you please." 

40 — 58. ' Horace describes his intimacy with Maecenas, and the envy 
and idle curiosity of others. 

Seven years and more have flown, 'tis nearly eight, since Maecenas 
first chose me for one of his friends, just that he might have some 
one to take in his carriage on a journey, to whom he might confide 



II. 6.] THE SATIRES. 



buch trifles as these: "What o'clock is it? Is the Thracian Galiina 
a match for Syrus? If people are not careful, now begins the cold 
morning air to nip them : " and other remarks safely to be trusted to 
a leaky ear. Meantime our friend is more and more exposed to 
envy every day and hour. "Why, he went to the public spectacles 
with Maecenas; he played at ball with him in the Plain of Mars; 
a child of fortune," all exclaim. There flies a chilling report from the 
Rostra through the streets : every man that meets me, consults me : 
"My good friend, you must needs know, for you have access to the 
great, is there any news about the Dacians?" "Oh I, I know no- 
thing." "How you ever love to jest!" "But may all the gods trouble 
me, if I know anything." "What, does Caesar mean to give the 
estates he promised to the veterans in Sicily or on Italian soil?" 
When I swear I know nothing, they are amazed, and think me with- 
out doubt the very closest and most taciturn of all mortals. 

59 — 76. Horace longs for the country, his quiet evenings, and 
cheerful dinners with- his friends, and conversations not without 
profit. 

In such things as these my day is lost, while I keep wishing to 
myself thus : "O country, when shall I behold you, and when will it 
be granted to me, at one time reading the writings of the ancients, 
at another taking my siesta, and spending my hours in indolence, to 
quaff at my ease the sweet forgetfulness of anxious life? O when shall 
beans, the relations of Pythagoras, and other vegetables made savoury 
with fat bacon, be served on my table? O feasts and nights divine, 
when I and my friends dine before my own Lar, when I give to 
the saucy household-slaves the dishes I have first tasted!" Each 
guest follows his own fancy; for there the guests are free from 
unreasonable laws, and different is the strength of the cups, ac- 
cording as one is able to bear stronger wine, or prefers to grow 
mellow with draughts of moderate strength. So then we begin 
to talk, not of our neighbours' villas and houses, nor whether 
Lepos dances well or ill : but we discuss what concerns us nearer, 
and it is evil to be ignorant of; as, "Are men made happy through 
riches or virtue?" "What attracts us to friendship, interest or probity? " 
"What is the nature of the chief good? " 

j 7 — 117. The fable of the two mice. 

Between-whiles my neighbour Cervius pleasantly tells us old tales 
bearing on the case in hand. For instance, if any one ignorantly 
praises the wealth of Arellius which brings him so much care, thus 
my friend begins: "Once on a time (so runs the tale) a country-mouse 
received a town-mouse in his poor little hole, hospitably welcoming 
his old friend. Rough was the country-mouse, and attentive to his 
gains, and yet could open his close soul to hospitality. To be short, 
he grudged neither his hoarded chick-pea, nor his long oats, and, 
carrying in his mouth raisins, and half-eaten bits of bacon, strove by 



1 52 HORACE. [II. 7. 

the variety of the food to overcome the daintiness of his guest, who 
hardly deigned to touch each piece with squeamish tooth : whilst the 
master of the house, stretched on this year's straw, was eating spelt 
and darnel, leaving for his friend the best of the feast. At length 
says the city-mouse, 'Why, my friend, are you content to live so 
patiently on the slope of a hanging wood ? How can you prefer the 
wild country to the city and the world? Take my advice, and set out 
at once, since all earthly creatures have mortal souls, and neither 
high nor low escape death ; wherefore, my good friend, enjoy yourself 
in pleasure, and forget not the shortness of life.' With such words 
was roused the rustic, and lightly he jumps out of his hole ; then both 
perform their intended journey, wishing to creep under the walls of 
the city at night. And now night held the heaven's middle space, 
when the two mice set foot within a wealthy mansion, where covers 
dyed in scarlet looked bright on ivory couches, and many viands re- 
mained from yesterday's great dinner-party, in piled-up baskets hard 
by. There lay at ease on purple covers the rustic, while up and 
down runs his active host, bringing up one dish after another, and 
exactly performs the duties of a servant, tasting first all he offers his 
guest. The other, reclining, enjoys his improved fortunes, and amid 
the good cheer is a happy visitor, when suddenly a terrible noise of 
opening doors drives both the mice from their seats. Frightened 
they both ran through the dining-room, and still more were they ter- 
rified out of their wits, when the lofty house resounded with the bark- 
ing of mastiffs. Then said the country-mouse: 'I have no taste for 
a life of this kind, so good bye ; my wood and hole by its safety from 
danger will content me with humble vetches.'" 

VII. 

1 — 20. Dialogue during the Saturnalia between Horace and his 
slave Davus, who gives instances of the inconsistency of man- 
kind, 

Davus. 
I have been listening to all your remarks, and desire to say a little 
to you, but, being only a slave, do not venture. 

Horace. 
Is it Davus? 

Davus. 
Yes, Davus, a servant attached to his master, and tolerably honest, 
yet not such a paragon as to be likely to die soon. 

Horace. 
Come, use the freedom of the month of December, sanctioned by 
our ancestors. Tell your tale. 

Davus. 
Some men are consistent in the love of their vices, and follow out 
their purposes ; but many more waver between the pursuit of right 
and their inclination to depravity. Thus Priscus, for instance, was 



II. 70 THE SATIRES. 153 



observed frequently wearing three rings, then again he had not one 
on his left hand : he lived inconsistently, changing the stripe of his 
tunic every hour; he would walk out of a noble house, and then sud- 
denly hide himself in a place, from which a decent freedman could 
hardly be seen coming out without losing his character ; sometimes 
he lived a profligate life at Rome ; then he would be a scholar at 
Athens ; all the Vertumni one can imagine must have been angry on 
his birthday. The opposite was Volanerius the buffoon; a richly- 
deserved gout crippled the joints of his hands; so he paid a boy 
every day to put into and take out of the box the dice ; at any rate he 
was consistent in vice, and, so far, less wretched and a better man 
than the other, who was as one pulling uneasily sometimes with a 
tight, sometimes with a loose cord. 

21—45. Davus applies this to his master Horace, the most incon- 
sistent of mortals. 

Horace. 

Tell me at once, you rogue, the point of this wretched stuff. 

Davus. 

It applies to yourself. 

Horace. 

How so, you rascal? 

Davus. 

Why, you praise the condition and habits of our people of olden 
days, and yet, if some god were suddenly to take you back to the 
days gone by, you would obstinately refuse, either because you do 
not really believe in the truth of your confident assertions, or else 
because you are unstable in your defence of what is right, for you are 
like a man sticking in the mire, vainly wishing to pluck his foot out. 
At Rome you pine for the country, in the country you glorify the 
distant city, you fickle creature. If it so happens that no one invites 
you to dinner, then you praise your quiet dish of herbs, as though 
you were carried to dinner parties bound hand and foot, and bless 
yourself, and hug yourself in your happiness, because, forsooth, you 
have not to go out anywhere to dinner. But let Maecenas invite you 
late in the evening, when the lamps are just lighted, then loud are 
your shouts and bawling, and you are frantic : "Make haste, bring the 
oil ; are you all deaf?" and off you go. Mulvius and the other parasites 
depart cursing you with curses we must not repeat. One of them 
says perhaps : " I do not deny that I am easily led by my stomach, I 
snuff a savoury smell ; weak am I and lazy ; if you please, a glutton 
too. You being such a one as I, nay, perhaps more worthless, 
yet wantonly attack me, as though you were a better man, and dis- 
guise your vices under a cloak of fine names." What, are you not 
found to be a greater fool than I, whose price was five hundred 
drachmas? Remove the terrors of your countenance, restrain your 
angry hand, while I deliver the lessons taught me by the porter of 
Crispinus. 



154 HORACE, [II. 7. 

46 — 82. The porter 1 s lecture to show that real slavery consists not in 
the outward state of life, but in the condition of the will. 

Your neighbour's wife has charms for you ; a low courtesan for 
Davus : which of us commits a sin that most deserves the cross? 
When you have cast aside your badges, and the ring you wear as a 
knight, and your Roman citizen's dress, and come forth transformed 
from a judge into a common slave, with a cloak disguising your per- 
fumed head, are you not what you pretend to be? Full of fear you 
are let into the house, and you tremble in your very heart in alternate 
fits of terror and lust. What matters it, whither you go away, sur- 
rendered to be branded, to be slain with rods and with the sword, or 
whether, shut up shamefully in a chest, you touch with your knees 
your crouching head? Has not the husband of the offending matron 
a rightful power over both? Over the seducer a power still more 
rightful. Although too the woman is afraid of you, and does not 
trust her lover, you with your eyes open will pass beneath the yoke, 
and hand over to a furious master all your property, and your life, and 
body, and character. 

Well, you have escaped : so, I suppose, you will fear for the future, 
and having had a warning, will be careful: not so: you are looking 
out for fresh opportunities of terror and ruin, a slave not once, but 
often. Yet what wild beast, having burst its bonds and escaped, per- 
versely returns to them again ? You say, " I am no adulterer." Very 
likely ; but neither am I a thief, when wisely I keep my hands off your 
plate. Remove danger, take away restraint ; then forward nature 
springs, as free to err. A pretty master, you, to be over me, you, 
a slave to the lordship of so many men and things ; three or four 
times the praetor's rod may touch you, but this never frees you from 
your wretched fears. Add another remark more of no less weight ; 
for whether the slave of a slave is called a substitute, as your custom 
names him, or a fellow-slave, what am I to be called in respect of 
you ? Why, you, my master, are the wretched slave of others, pulled 
about by your passions, as a puppet is by strings which another 
jerks. 

83 — 89. The wise man alone is free. 

Who then is free? He who is wise, over himself true lord, unter- 
rified by want and death and bonds, who can his passions stem, and 
glory scorn : in himself complete, like a sphere, perfectly round ; so 
that no external object can rest on the polished surface: against such 
a one Fortune's assault is broken. 

89 — 101. Love is one kind of slavery; the insane admiration of the 
fine arts is another. 

Now can you recognise any of these marks as belonging to you? 
A sweetheart demands of you five talents, insults you, shuts the door 
in your face, throws cold water over you ; then calls you back. Now 
loose your neck from the shameful yoke ; come say, " I am free, yes, 






II. 8.] THE SATIRES. 155 

free." You cannot; for your soul is troubled by no gentle master, 
and sharp are the spurs which prick your weary spirit, and on you 
are driven, though you would fain refuse. Or again, when you stand 
amazed at a picture by Pausias, how are you less in error than I, the 
admirer of the battles of Fulvius, Rutuba, and Placideianus, drawn 
with stiffly-stretched leg, scenes painted with red chalk or charcoal, 
as true to life as if the men brandishing their weapons were really 
fighting, striking, parrying? Knave and loiterer are Davus" names 
then : you, sir, are styled a nice and experienced connoisseur of 
antiques, 

102 — 118. The glutton is a slave, and will suffer for his gluttony, 
be he who he may: slaves are all who cannot bear their own 
society; these things apply to Horace himself. 

I am worthless, if attracted by a smoking cake : does your won- 
derful virtue and temperance resist the temptation of a rich dinner? 
Compliance with my stomach's craving proves more fatal to me : 
why so? because my back pays for it: but will you escape punish- 
ment, if you seek for dainties which cannot be cheaply got? No : for 
bitter turn luxuries indulged in without restraint, and your staggering 
feet refuse to support your diseased body. Is the slave a sinner, who 
at nightfall exchanges a stolen body-scraper for a bunch of grapes ; 
and is there nothing servile in him, who, in obedience to his belly, 
parts with his estates? Again, you cannot bear to be alone for* an 
hour, nor can you employ your leisure time aright ; you avoid your- 
self, like a runaway and truant slave, while you strive, now with 
wine, now with sleep, to baffle Care. In vain ; for the gloomy partner 
pursues and follows your flight. 

Horace. 
Where can I find a stone? 

Davus. 
What for? 

Horace. 
Where can I find some arrows ? 

Davus. 
The man is mad, or else he is writing verses. 

Horace. 
Unless you are off in a minute, you shall join the eight labourers 
on my Sabine farm. 

VIII. 

1 — 17. The description of a dinner-party given by Nasidiemis, a 

man remarkable for his wealth and vanity. 

Horace. 
How did you enjoy yourself at the dinner of Nasidienus the 
wealthy? For when I sent to invite you, I was told you went there 
to dine early in the afternoon. 



156 HORACE. [II. 8. 

FUNDANIUS. 
So much, that I never spent a pleasanter evening in my life. 

Horace. 
Tell me, if you do not object, what dish first appeased the anger of 
your appetite. 

FUNDANIUS. 

First was served a Lucanian boar, caught while the soft South wind 
blew, as the father of the feast assured us ; it was garnished with 
pungent rapes, lettuces, radishes, all things suited to rouse the sated 
stomach, skirret, fish-pickle, lees of Coan wine. Then, on the re- 
moval of this course, a servant with loins girded began to wipe the 
maple table with a purple napkin, while another cleared away all that 
ought to be removed, as likely to offend the company : next in walks 
a dusky slave, Hydaspes, as solemnly as an Athenian maiden carry- 
ing the sacred basket of Ceres ; he brought Cascuban wine ; Alcon, 
another servant, brought home-made Chian. Then said the master: 
" If you, Maecenas, prefer Alban or Falernian to those on the table, 
we have both." 

18 — 33. The names and places of the company on the triclinium. 

Horace. 
Oh the miseries of wealth! But now I am anxious to know, who 
were the company with whom you, Fundanius, were so happy? 

FUNDANIUS. 

On the highest couch I reclined, and next to me Viscus of Thurii, 
and beyond him, if I remember right, Varius ; in the middle row was 
Maecenas, with Servilius Balatro and Vibidius, the friends he had 
introduced; on the lowest couch was the master of the feast, with 
Nomentanus above, Porcius below him ; Porcius amused us by 
swallowing whole cakes at a mouthful; Nomentanus' duty was to 
point out with his forefinger any delicacy that might have been 
overlooked; for as to the rest of us, n6t such connoisseurs, we 
dined on birds, shell and other fish, which had a lurking flavour 
quite unlike the usual taste: as appeared directly, when he handed 
me the livers of a plaice and turbot, such as I had never tasted before. 
Then he instructed me how that honey-apples are more rosy, if 
picked when the moon wanes; what difference this makes, he can 
tell you better than I can. 

33 — 41. The account of the drinking. 

Then said Vibidius to Balatro: "Unless we drink ruinously, we 
shall die unavenged : " and he calls for larger cups. Pale turned the 
face of our host, for there was nothing he dreaded so much as hard 
drinkers, either because they do not restrain their tongues, or because 
strong wines make dull the delicacy of the taste. Vibidius and Bala- 
tro emptied into their large cups whole bowls of wine ; ail followed their 
lead, except the two guests on the lowest couch; they spared the 
flagons. 






II. 8.] THE SATIRES. I57 

42 — 53. The continuation of the dinner. Nasidienus explains various 
points, important for giving a good dinner. 

Then is brought in a sea-eel ; its full length was seen on the dish, 
round it were the prawns swimming in sauce. Upon this spoke the 
master of the feast: "The fish was caught before it spawned; if 
taken later, it would have been less delicate. These fish are dressed 
in sauce, made of oil from the very best press of Venafrum ; of pickle 
from the Spanish mackerel ; of wine five years old, this must be 
Italian wine, and put in while it is being boiled; for after it has 
stood to cool, Chian wine suits it best of all; forget not white pepper 
and vinegar made of Lesbian wine when turned sour. I first taught 
men to boil in this sauce green rockets and bitter elecampane ; but 
Curtillus bid them boil se v a-urchins not washed in fresh water, as 
superior to the pickle which the shell-fish yields." 

54 — 78. The falling of the tapestry. The sorrow of the host, and the 
sarcasm of Balatro, mistaken by Nasidienus for a co?npliment. 

While thus he lectured, the hanging tapestry fell heavily on the 
dish, bringing down more dirty dust than the North wind raises on 
the fields of Campania. We fear some grave disaster ; but finding 
there is no danger, recover our spirits. Rufus buried his head, and 
wept, as though his son had been cut off by an early death. When 
he would have stopped no one knows, had not philosophic Nomen- 
tanus thus comforted his friend: "Alas, O Fortune, what god is more 
cruel towards us than thou ? How sad is it that thou ever delightest 
to mock the fortunes of man ! " As to Varius, he could hardly hide 
his laughter with his napkin : while Baiatro, sneering at everything, 
said : " Such is the condition of our life ; thus never will your industry 
meet with the fitting meed of glory. That I forsooth may dine sump- 
tuously, are you to be tortured and distracted with sundry cares, 
lest the bread be burnt, or sauce served up with the wrong seasoning, 
or your servants wait ill-girt and untidy ? Then there are the mis- 
fortunes of the tapestry falling, as just now, of a groom stumbling and 
breaking a dish. But a host is like a general ; prosperity hides his 
genius, adversity best discovers it." Nasidienus said to this: "May 
Heaven grant you every blessing you desire! So kind a man are you, 
so courteous a guest." Which said, he calls for his slippers. Then 
on each couch you might have heard the sound of separate whispers 
buzzing in each ear. 

79 — 95« The renewed energy of the host. He bores his guests; their 
, cruel vengeance. 

Horace, 
Why, I should have preferred this to any play : but please tell me 
what next gave you cause for laughter. 

Fundanius. 
Vibidius asked the servants, whether the flagon also is broken, 
since he calls for cups, and none are brought ; we laugh for various 



158 HORACE. [II. 8. 

pretences, whilst Balatro supplies the jokes : then, you return, O 
Nasidienus, with countenance quite cheery, as one who meant to 
mend his fortune by his skill: him followed servants bearing on 
mighty dish crane already cut up, and plentifully sprinkled with 
salt, and meal besides; also the liver of a white goose fattened on 
rich figs, and hares' wings torn off and served by themselves ; " For 
thus," said he, "they are a much greater delicacy than if you eat them 
with the loins:" next we beheld placed on the table blackbirds with 
their breasts browned, and pigeons without their hinder parts. All 
these were delicacies ; but the master of the feast would tell us the 
history of their natures and qualities ; and we escaped from him, and 
our vengeance was not to taste a bit of them, just as if Canidia had 
tainted them with breath more venomous than that of the serpents 
of Africa. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLES. 



Horace's Epistles may be said to be a continuation of his Satires 
in the form of letters. As many of the Satires contain little that can 
be called satirical in the modern sense of the word, so too but few of 
the Epistles are letters except in form. They do indeed comprise one 
excellent specimen of a letter of introduction, the ninth of the first 
Book ; one, the fourteenth of the same Book, is a piece of playful 
banter ; the third, fourth, and fifth are in the light style of friendly 
correspondence; while the twentieth, which is inscribed "To his 
Book," forms a sort of epilogue to the Epistles he had then writ- 
ten; but, as a rule, they are compositions like those which Pope, 
following the manner of Horace, has made familiar to us as Moral 
Essays. 

In the first of all these Epistles, which possesses many points in 
common with most of its successors in the same Book, Horace begs 
his friend Maecenas not to press him to write more odes, since he has 
abandoned poetry now that he is growing old, and means to devote 
himself entirely to the study of philosophy. For, compared with the 
Odes, Horace does not look upon the Epistles as poetry at all ; just 
as he had spoken of "the prosaic Muse" of satire. The rhythm, of 
the Epistles is, however, considerably more harmonious than that of 
the Satires, and the thoughts are generally expressed in a more 
poetical style. Though the writer does not affect to aim at anything 
like the grandeur and varied music of the Epic hexameter, or of such 
a poem as the Georgics, yet there is a mellowness and evenness in 
the flow of the verse, which accords well with the more sedate manner 
of the poet as he is now advancing in years, and with the terseness 
and felicity of the form in which he conveys his thoughts. 

The main principle of the philosophy which Horace preaches in 
this first Epistle (as he does in the others, and elsewhere in his 
writings) is this: "Moderation is wisdom." Horace professes with 
truth not to attach himself implicitly to any particular school of 
philosophy. This principle, however, he probably adopted from a 
well-known passage in the second book of Aristotle's Ethics, where 
it is said that virtue is midway between the vices of excess and defect. 
Cicero in his work on Orators, entitled " Brutus," tells us that it was 
a maxim of the old Academy that virtue is a mean. Horace repro- 



!6o HORACE. 



- 






duces this maxim in the eighteenth Epistle of the first Book, where 
he says: "Virtue is a mean between vices." But indeed the principle 
colours the whole of his writings, and he is never tired of returning 
to it. Whether he pronounces that a miser is ever in want, or ex- 
horts us to wonder at nothing, or sings of the happiness of him who 
makes the golden mean his choice, or proclaims that the moderate 
man is the genuine king, the feeling is ever the same. There is little 
enthusiasm in Horace's moral philosophy. And yet his love and 
admiration of virtue are evidently sincere and strong, as also is 
his patriotism. There is much earnestness in the tone of the 
second ode of the third Book, where the poet declares that "to 
die for fatherland is sweet and seemly;" and the same spirit is 
equally shewn in the sixth and twenty-fourth odes of the same 
Book, and in many other passages. So too the morality taught by 
Horace in the Epistles sometimes rises almost to enthusiasm, as in 
the fine passage in the first of the Epistles, where he exclaims : " Be 
this our wall of brass; to feel no guilt within, no fault to turn us 
pale:" and in the sixteenth Epistle: "Through love of virtue good 
men shrink from sin." But, for the most part, Horace maintains in 
his precepts a practical and moderate tone, and gently exposes and 
rebukes the weakness and folly, rather than the wickedness of vice, 
In this, as has often been observed, his manner forms a strong con- 
trast to the indignant declamation of Juvenal. If Juvenal is the 
opposite of Horace in his vehemence, so too is Juvenal's energy 
unlike Horace's pensiveness. For throughout the writings of Horace, 
notwithstanding all his humour and wit, an almost sorrowful tone 
may not unfrequently be traced. Pensiveness has indeed always 
formed a feature in the characters of humorous men ; and perhaps 
in the case of Horace the constitutional feebleness of his health may 
have also been one of the causes of this occasional depression of 
spirits. The passages in which he speaks of death are gloomy, and 
not relieved by hopefulness. Though the fear of death is mentioned, 
in the charming verses that conclude the last of the Epistles (which 
are very successfully paraphrased by Pope), as a frailty'from which 
the wise should be free, yet the poet fails in his own case to exemplify 
this ideal wisdom. His lament addressed to Virgil on the death of 
Quinctilius 1 , his condolence with his friend Valgius 2 , his famous lines 
addressed to Postumus 3 , and the ode of tender sympathy in which he 
assures Maecenas of his devoted faithfulness 4 , all alike breathe the 
spirit of dreary mournfulness. Juvenal, on the contrary, in the well- 
known lines at the end of his tenth Satire, which have been translated 
by Dryden into verses which perhaps surpass his original in excel- 
lence, speaks hopefully and cheerfully of the end of life. Of the gods 
he says, 



"In goodness, as in greatness, they excel; 
Ah, that we loved ourselves but half so well! 1 ' 

I. 24. ML 9. MI. M. ML 17. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLES 



161 



And presently he mentions, as the highest blessing for which we 
can pray to Heaven, 

"A soul that can securely death defy, 
And count it Nature's privilege to die." 

At the same time, there is no doubt that the tinge of sadness which 
now and then pervades the poems, and indeed some of the most 
popular poems, of Horace, has added not a little to the fascination 
of his writings, and especially of his Odes. 

"Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought." 

In the two Epistles of the second Book, and also in the Art of 
Poetry, which is written in the form of a letter, and should properly 
have been included among the Epistles, Horace appears as a literary 
critic, a character in which he had appeared on other occasions 
before, as in the tenth Satire of the first Book. In the first of the 
two Epistles which form the second book, Horace compares the 
older Latin poets with those of his own time. He gives the praise 
of superior merit to the later writers, and assigns the more complete 
knowledge of Greek literature as the principal cause of this superi- 
ority. He evidently thinks that the earlier poets of Rome may fairly 
be charged with a want of polish and refinement, a fault which he 
had in his satires more particularly imputed to Lucilius. At the 
same time, he complains that praise is given to authors of a past age 
on account of their antiquity only, and without a due consideration 
of their actual merits. 

Lucretius and Catullus are undoubtedly the two foremost of the 
poets of Rome who wrote previously tp the time of Horace. Yet 
Horace never mentions Lucretius at all ; and his single allusion 
to Catullus (in the ioth Satire of the ist Book) is almost contemp- 
tuous, as of a writer of trifling pieces, to be sung by third-rate 
musicians. It seems wonderful that Horace should have been 
unable to discern, not only the splendid genius of Catullus, but also 
his distinguished skill as an artist. It is possible that Horace may 
have felt some jealousy of the poetical merit and fame of Catullus, 
as of one who had, in fact, before himself "adapted to Italian mea- 
sures the ^Eolian lay;" but, most probably, the marked difference in 
the schools of poetry, to which they may be said to have severally 
attached themselves, was that which, most of all, made Horace blind 
to the genuine excellence of both Catullus and Lucretius. For 
although these two poets resembled Virgil and Horace, in so far 
as they drew from the Greek the sources of their poetry, and often 
closely imitated their originals, yet in the form and style of their 
compositions they both differ greatly. Lucretius is most plainly a writer 
whose verses are generally rough and unpolished ; and Catullus, 
though a real artist, and one who sometimes manages his metre with 
dexterity, (as he does in a high degree indeed in his Atys,) yet is he 
more often careless and diffuse ; he will not spend the time and 
trouble which must have been spent by Virgil and Horace in giving 
to their verses that subtle and exquisite variety, that conciseness and 

HOR. II 



1 62 HORACE. 



happiness of expression. Authors who possess this latter excellence, 
" correctness of style," as it is sometimes called, have always been 
intolerant of its absence in other writers. It was not without a 
certain self-complacence that Pope wrote the couplet, 
"Ev'n copious Dryden wanted, or forgot, 
The last and greatest art, the art to blot." 

This intolerance has extended to the admirers of "correct" poets: 
so Lord Byron (though he certainly did not himself follow the style 
of that school which he deeply venerated,) was so extravagant in 
his admiration of Pope that he evidently thought him a greater poet 
than Shakespeare, though he does not venture actually to say so ; 
however, he goes so far as to call Shakespeare, on account of his 
want of correctness, "the barbarian;" and he constantly reviles and 
disparages the poets of his own day for their deficiency in those 
merits of style which are characteristic of the so-called "Augustan" 
age of English poetry. "Depend upon it," he says, "it is all Horace 
then, and Claudian now, among us." In Roman literature too, and 
at Rome in the time of Horace, there existed two schools of poetry ; 
that of the severe, restrained, and finished style of Virgil and Horace, 
and that of the florid and grandiloquent versification which Horace 
so often blames. It is abundantly clear in the satires of Persius, 
that these two opposite schools of poetry existed at the time he 
wrote. 

The second Epistle is in some points like the first Epistle of the 
first Book. Horace says that he has now resigned the functions of 
a poet, and devoted himself to philosophy ; he takes the opportunity 
of attacking the superficial and showy compositions of many poets 
of his own day, and lays down more correct and true principles of 
the art of poetry. 

Horace in his Epistles fascinates us more than in his Satires, 
possibly even more than in his Odes. Though the Odes contain 
most of the poetry, strictly speaking, which Horace has left us, yet 
the Epistles perhaps give us a more complete idea of those points 
in his character which have made him the familiar friend of so many 
generations. We can realise, as we read these Epistles, the warmth 
and sincerity of his friendship, the good-natured humour and delicate 
sympathy which he shows as an observer of the characters of men, 
the unfailing tact and tenderness with which he hints at the faults of 
his friends, and the undoubted genuineness and earnest tone of his 
morality. Horace is certainly the author who has been chiefly 
followed by the didactic writers of later times ; and it is not extra- 
vagant to say that the Epistles, the most mature and excellent of his 
didactic works, have exercised, in no small degree, a beneficial 
influence on the manners and civilization of modern Europe. 



EPISTLES. BOOK I. 



I. 



i — 19. Horace excuses hints elf to Maecenas for giving up the com- 
position of lyric poetry. Philosophy is better suited to him as he 
grows older. But he is not bound to any particular school. 

You, Maecenas, who were the subject of my earliest lay, who shall 
be the subject of my latest, would fain shut me up in the old training- 
school, thougL a gladiator publicly approved enough, and already 
presented with the wand of freedom. My age is not the same ; 
no more is my inclination. Veianius, having fastened up his arms 
to the door-post of Hercules' temple, lies hidden in his country 
retreat, that he may not so often on the edge of the arena have to 
implore the people for his freedom. There is one whose voice is 
often ringing in my unobstructed ear: "Sensibly set free betimes the 
horse that is growing old, lest he laughably fail in the end, and strain 
his panting flanks." 

So now I lay down verses and every other toy ; what is true and 
becoming I study and inquire, and am all absorbed in this ; I amass 
and arrange my stores, so that afterwards I may be able to bring 
them forth. And lest you ask, perchance, under what leader I am, 
beneath what roof I shelter myself ; not bound to swear as any one 
master dictates, wheresoever the tempest drives me, thither am I 
borne as a guest. Now I turn practical, and am plunged in the 
waves of politics, true Virtue's guard and rigid sentinel ; now un- 
awares I slide back into the maxims of Aristippus, and endeavour to 
subject things to myself, not myself to things. 

20 — 40. Wisdoin is the trite business of life ; yet most of us must be 
content with but a moderate share of it: wisdom too is the only 
power which can tame our passions. 

As the night is long to them whose mistress plays them false, and 
as the day is long to them who work for debt ; as the year is sluggish 
to wards, whom their mother's strict supervision restrains ; so, slow 
and joyless flow to me the hours, that delay my hope and purpose 
to do with diligence that which is profitable alike to the poor, 
alike to the wealthy, which, when neglected, will be injurious to boys 
and to old men alike. 



1 64 HORACE, [I. i. 

It remains that with these rudiments I govern and comfort my 
own self. You may not be able with your sight to discern as far 
as Lynceus ; yet you would not on that account disdain to be 
anointed when your eyes are sore ; nor; because you may despair 
of gaining the limbs of unconquered Glycon, would you refuse to 
keep your body free from the knotty gout in the hand. You may 
advance up to a certain point, if it is not granted you to go be- 
yond. Your bosom boils with avarice and torturing desire : there are 
spells and words, wherewith you may be able to allay this pain, and 
to rid yourself of a large portion of the malady. You are swollen 
with the passion for renown : there are sure purificatory rites, which 
will have power to relieve you, when with sincere faith the formula 
has thrice been read. The envious, passionate, slothful, drunken, 
lewd, no man is so utterly savage that he cannot become civilised, 
if only he lend to culture an attentive ear. 



■ 



41 — 69. Men will do and suffer anything to avoid poverty, bu< 
nothing to gain virtue, which is more precious tha?i gold. A clear 
conscieiice makes a man trtcly a king. 

'Tis the beginning of virtue to escape from vice, and the beginning 
of wisdom to be free from folly. You see with what distress of mind and 
body you strive to avoid those ills which you believe to be the greatest, a 
narrow fortune, and the ignominy of defeat in competition for office. 
With speed as a merchant you run to the ends of India, flying 
from poverty through sea, through rocks, through flames: are you 
not willing to learn and listen and trust a better man, so that you 
may not care for those things, which in your folly you admire and 
yearn for? 

What combatant about the hamlets and cross-ways would disdain 
to be crowned at the great Olympian games, if he had the hope, if he 
had the warrant of the pleasant palm of victory without the dust? 
Silver is meaner than gold, gold is meaner than virtues. u O citizens, 
citizens, we must seek for money first; virtue after cash!" These 
precepts Janus proclaims from his highest to his lowest arcade ; these 
precepts youths and old men ever repeat, with satchels and tablet 
hung from their left arm. You have spirit, you have character, and 
eloquence, and credit; but if six. or seven thousand sesterces are 
wanting to make up the four hundred thousand, you will be a 
plebeian. But boys at their games say, "If you act aright you shall 
be king." Be this our wall of brass : to feel no guilt within, no fault 
to turn us pale. 

Tell me, I pray, is the Roscian law the better, or the children's 
ditty, which confers the realm on those who do aright, a ditty that 
was chanted by the manly Curii and Camilli? Does he advise you 
better, who bids you "make your fortune, make your fortune; fairly if 
you can; if not, by any method make your fortune :" — so that you 
may have a closer view of Pupius' lamentable pieces : or he, who, ever 
at your side, exhorts and trains you to confront disdainful Chance, 
independent and erect? 






I. i.] THE EPISTLES. 165 



o 



7° — 93' I cannot follow the popular ideas, because I see that they all 
tend one way, namely, to money-making. Besides, not only do men 
differ from one aiiother in their pursuits, but no man is ever con- 
sistent with himself 

But if the Roman people chance to ask me, why I am not pleased 
with the same opinions as they, as I enjoy the same colonnades, I 
shall answer as once the wary fox replied to the lion when sick : 
" Because the foot-prints frighten me, since they all look towards 
your den, and none back from it." You are a many-headed monster : 
for what shall I follow, or whom? A part of mankind is eager to 
farm the revenues ; some there are who with cakes and apples hunt 
for hoarding widows, and catch old men, to send into their preserves ; 
the wealth of many grows by secret usury. 

But let it be that different men are attracted by different objects 
and pursuits : are the same men able to maintain for an hour their 
approval of the same things? "No bay in all the world outshines 
delightful Baiae ! " If so the rich man chance to say, the lake and 
sea feel the passion of the impetuous master ; if unreasoning caprice 
chance to make auspices to lead him: " To-morrow, workmen, you 
will carry your tools to Teanum." The marriage-bed is in his hall : 
he says there is nothing superior to, nothing better than a single life : 
if 'tis not, he swears that happiness is possessed by husbands alone. 
With what noose shall I hold this Proteus who is ever changing his 
form? How does the poor man act? Why, laugh! He changes his 
garrets, his couches, his baths, his barbers ; in his hired boat he is 
just as sea-sick as the opulent man who sails in his private trireme. 

94 — 108. External inconsiste?icies are noticed at once, while those of 
life and practice are passed over. The epistle ends with a joke on 
the Stoic doctrine of the perfect man. 

If I chance to meet you with my hair unevenly dressed by the 
barber, you laugh ; if perchance I have a threadbare vest beneath 
a glossy tunic, or if my toga hang unequally and awry, you laugh : 
what do you, when my judgment is at war with itself, when it 
disdains what it sought for, and seeks again what it lately aban- 
doned, when it is in a turmoil, and incoherent in the whole system 
of life, when it pulls down, builds up, exchanges squares and 
circles? You think that I am mad like other folks, and neither 
laugh at me, nor consider that I need a physician, or a committee 
appointed by the praetor, although you are the safeguard of my 
fortunes, and get angry about an ill-pared nail of your friend who 
hangs upon you, who looks to you ! 

To conclude ; the wise man's less than Jove alone ; rich, free, 
ennobled, fair ; in short, a king of kings ; above all things sound, — 
except when a cold in the head annoys him. 



t66 HORACE. [I. 2. 



II. 

I — 31. This epistle appears to be written to the elder son of M. 
Lollius, to whom is addressed the ninth ode of the fourth book. 
Horace begins by demonstrating, in the manner of the Stoic 
philosophers, the merit of Homer as a teacher of morals. 

Elder son of Lollius, I have read afresh at Praeneste, while you 
are practising elocution at Rome, the writer of the Trojan war; who 
tells us what is fair, what is foul, what is expedient, what is not, 
more clearly and better than Chrysippus and Crantor. Listen to 
the reasons why I have formed this belief, if there be nothing which 
prevents you. 

The story, in which it is told how Greece in lingering war was 
dashed against the land of the barbarians on account of the love of 
Paris, contains the broils of foolish kings and peoples. Antenor 
deems it best to cut away the cause of the war. What does Paris 
say? He declares that he cannot be forced to reign in safety and 
live in prosperity. Nestor is anxious to settle the disputes between 
Pelides and Atrides ; love burns the one ; anger, however, burns 
them both together. Whatever folly the kings commit, the Achasans 
suffer for it. By faction, by deceits, by crime, by lust, and by anger, 
they offend within and without the walls of Ilium. On the other 
hand ? he has set before us Ulysses, as a notable instance of what is 
the power of valour and what is the power of wisdom ; that wary 
man, the conqueror of Troy, who examined the cities and customs 
of many men ; and who, in his efforts to contrive for himself and for 
his comrades a way to return across the spreading deep, endured 
many a hardship ; he, a man who would not be overwhelmed by the 
contrary waves of circumstance. You know the Sirens' lays, and 
Circe's cups ; if with his companions he had in folly and greediness 
drunk of them, he would have become a being hideous and soulless, 
beneath a harlot mistress, would have lived the life of an unclean 
hound, or a hog that loves the mud. We are mere cyphers, and 
born to consume the fruits of the earth, Penelope's suitors, spend- 
thrifts, and the young courtiers of Alcinous, who employed them- 
selves more than was proper in attending to their bodily pleasures ; 
who thought it seemly to slumber till noon, and to charm their care 
to sink to rest at the music of the lyre. 

32 — 71. Men will take more trouble for bad deeds than for good, 
and more for the body than the mind. Yet, without contentment 
and peace of mind, material acquisitions cannot be enjoyed. 
Avarice and envy are always beggars, and remorse follows 
anger. Youth is the time to learn self-control. Whether you 
drop behind or outrun my principles, I shall still adhere to my 
philosophy of moderation. 

Robbers arise by night to cut the throats of men : do you not wake 
from sleep to save yourself? But if you will not do it when in health, 



I. 3.] THE EPISTLES. 167 

you will have to run when dropsical; and unless before daybreak 
you call for a book and a light, if you do not vigorously apply your 
mind to honourable pursuits and objects, you will be kept awake, 
and tortured, by envy or love. For why do you hasten to remove 
those things which hurt the eye ; — but, if aught consumes the mind, 
put off the time of cure from year to year? He who begins, possesses 
half the act; dare to be wise; begin. He who defers the hour for 
living aright, is waiting like the clown until the brook run out ; but 
it glides and will glide on to every age with rolling flood. 

We make money the object of our aims, and a wealthy wife to bear 
our children, and wild woods are tamed by the ploughshare : let him 
to whose lot there falls what is sufficient yearn for nought beyond. 
'Tis not a mansion and estate, 'tis not a pile of bronze and gold, 
that is wont to remove fevers from its master's diseased body, to 
remove cares from his mind. It must needs be that the owner is in 
health, if he designs to use aright the riches he has amassed. The 
man who desires or fears, mansion and fortune delight him just as 
painted panels delight sore eyes, warm applications the gout, the 
music of the lute those ears which are troubled with collected dirt. 
Unless the vessel is clean, whatever you pour into it turns sour. 

Scorn pleasures ; pleasure bought with pain is hurtful. A miser is 
ever in want ; let your desire aim at a fixed mark. Envy pines away 
at the sight of her neighbour's flourishing fortunes ; Sicilian tyrants 
never discovered a torture more intense than envy. He who does 
not curb his anger will wish that thing undone which irritation and 
impulse have prompted him to do, in his hurry to inflict a violent 
punishment to gratify his animosity. Anger is short-lived frenzy: 
govern the temper ; for unless it obeys, it commands ; be sure you 
keep down it with bits, keep down it with a chain. 

The breaker trains the horse while apt to learn, and with neck 
still pliable, to go on its way as the rider directs; the hunting 
hound, from the time when it first bayed at a deer-skin in the 
kennels, begins its service in the woods. Now, while a boy, drink in 
my words with heart still clear, now commit yourself to better men. 
The jar will long preserve the odour of wine with which it has once 
been saturated. But if you lag behind or vigorously outpace me, 
I neither wait for him that is slow of foot, nor strive to overtake 
those who run before me. 

III. 

To Julius Florus, who is serving on the staff of Claudius Tiberius 
Nero. The letter consists mainly of inquiries and observations 
as to the literary pursuits of members of the staff; and concludes 
with a hope that the quarrel between Florus and M una tins has 
ended in a reconciliation. 

Julius Florus, I am anxious to know in what regions of the world 
Claudius, the step-son of Augustus, is serving. Does Thrace de- 
lain you, and Hebrus bound with snowy fetter, or the straits which 



1 68 HORACE, [1. 4 . 

run between the neighbouring towers, or Asia's wealthy plains and 
hills? 

What description of works is the diligent staff composing? This 
also I desire to know. Who is taking upon himself to record the 
exploits of Augustus? Who is spreading to a distant age his wars 
and treaties of peace? What is Titius doing, he who soon will 
come to be on the Romans' lips ; he who has not shrunk from quaff- 
ing draughts of the Pindaric spring, daring to scorn the common 
pools and streams? How is his health? How is his regard for me? 
Is he essaying, at the prompting of the Muse, to fit to Latin chords 
the Theban measures ; or does he wildly rave and mouth in the 
tragic art ? Pray what is Celsus doing ; he who has been and must 
be often warned to search for resources of his own, and to refrain 
from laying hands on any writings which Apollo on the Palatine has 
admitted ; lest if, perchance, the tribe of birds some day shall come 
to claim the plumage which is their own, he provoke laughter, like 
the wretched crow when stripped of her stolen hues. What are you 
venturing on yourself? About what beds of thyme are you nimbly 
flitting? Not puny is your genius, not untilled and of an uncomely 
roughness. Whether you are whetting your tongue for pleading, 
or studying to give opinions in the common law, or composing an 
attractive lay, you will win the foremost prize of the conqueror s ivy. 
But if you could abandon those cold applications which nourish 
cares, you would advance whither heavenly Wisdom led you. This 
practice, this pursuit, let us all earnestly follow, both the humble and 
the exalted, if we wish to pass our life, beloved by our country and 
by ourselves. 

This too you ought to say in your reply, whether Munatius is as 
dear to you as is meet, or whether your goodwill, badly sewn 






together, ineffectually unites, and is bursting asunder again. But 
whether hot blood or a misunderstanding of the facts chafe you in 
the wildness of your untamed necks, in whatever region you are 
living, you that are not such as should dissolve your brotherly 
alliance, a votive heifer is being fattened to grace your return. 

IV. 

To his friend Albius Tibullus, the elegiac poet, Horace here prof esses 
himself to be entirely a disciple of Epicurus, 

Albius, gentle critic of my satires, what shall I say that you are 
doing now in the district of Pedum? Writing something to surpass 
the pieces of Cassius of Parma, or sauntering silent amid healthy 
woods, musing whate'er is worthy of one that is wise and good? 
You never were a body without mind. The gods have given you 
beauty, the gods have given you wealth, and the skill to enjoy it. 
What more could a fond nurse pray for her darling charge, who, like 
you, has the power to think aright, and to utter what he feels, and 
to whose lot there falls abundantly favour, fame, health, and decent 
means, with a purse that does not fail? 



I. 5.] THE EPISTLES. x 6 9 

'Twixt hope and care, 'twixt fears and fits of passion, believe each 
day has dawned to be your last: welcome will steal upon you the 
hour that is not hoped for. Myself you will find plump and sleek, 
in high condition, when you wish to laugh at a hog Irom the sty of 
Epicurus. 

V. 

Horace invites to dinner the advocate Torquatus, to whom he wrote 
the seventh ode of the fourth Book. He tells his friend that to- 
7norrow is a holiday, so that he may well forget his occupations 
for a time. The poet extols the virtues of wine, as in the twenty - 
first ode of the third Book; and describes the preparations he is 
makiiigfor the banquet. 

If you can recline at my table on couches made by Archias, and 
shrink not from dining on a miscellaneous salad in a modest dish, 
I will expect you, Torquatus, at my house at sunset. You will 
drink wine which was drawn off into jars, between marshy Minturnae 
and Petrinum the hill of Sinuessa, in Taurus' second consulate. If 
you possess aught better, send it ; or else obey my orders at the 
feast. Long has the hearth been brightly polished and the furniture 
made neat in honour of you. Dismiss visionary hopes, and the 
competition for wealth, and Moschus' case : to-morrow being Caesar's 
birthday, the festal hours grant indulgence and slumber; you will 
be able without loss to pass in genial conversation the length of the 
summer night. 

Wherefore have I wealth, if I am not allowed to use it? He that 
is sparing and overmuch austere through regard for his heir is next 
door to a madman ; I will begin to drink and scatter flowers, and will 
even submit to be accounted indiscreet. What is there tipsiness does 
not effect? It unlocks hidden secrets, it bids hopes be realised, it 
impels the coward to the field, it lifts the load from off the anxious 
mind, it teaches new accomplishments! Whom have not flowing 
cups made eloquent? Whom have they not made free in pinching 
penury? 

These matters I am bound to provide for efficiently, and not 
against my will withal; that no soiled coverlet, no dirty napkin, 
make you turn up your nose ; that both tankard and plate display 
you to yourself; that there be not among trusty friends one who 
would carry our words beyond the threshold; that like may unite and 
be linked with like. 

I will engage to meet you Butra and Septicius, and Sabinus, 
unless an earlier invitation and a girl whose company he prefers 
keep him away; there is also room for more introductions by the 
guests: but the noisome goat oppresses crowded feasts. Only 
write back how many you would like to bring ; lay business aside, 
and by the back-door elude the client who is keeping watch in 
the hall. 



170 HORACE. [I. 6. 



VI. 

Equanimity is happiness :fear and desire alike disturb our peace of mind. 
You will find my maxim true, if you seek the chief good in any 
other pursuit; ( i ) in riches, (2) in political honours, (3) in sump- 
tuous living, or (4) in love and trifling. The person to who 771 
this epistle is addressed, Niunichts, or, perhaps, Minucius, is not 
elsewhere mentioned by Horace, or by other writers. 






To wonder at nothing is about the one and only thing, Numicius, 
which can make a man happy, and keep him so*. This sun and 
stars and seasons which depart at regular periods, some there are 
who view, not infected with any dread: what deem you of the 
bounties of the earth, what of the gifts of the sea which enriches 
the far-distant Arabs and Indians; what of the shows, the plaudits, 
and the favours of the partial Roman? In what measure, with what 
feeling and eyes, do you consider that they should be viewed? He 
who dreads the opposites of these, wonders much in the same man- 
ner as he who feels desire ; the trepidation on either side is painful, 
so soon as an unexpected object startles one or the other. Whether 
he joys or grieves, desires or fears, what is it to the point, if, whatso- 
e'er he chance to see better or worse than his expectation, he is 
stunned with eyes fast fixed, and mind and body too? Let the 
wise man receive the name of the fool, the just of the unjust, if he 
follow after Virtue herself farther than is sufficient. 

Go now, adore old plate and sculptured marble, and vessels of 
bronze, and works of art ; wonder at the hues of Tyrian purple and gems 
withal; rejoice because a thousand eyes gaze'on you as you speak; 
in your diligence go to the forum at daybreak, and in the evening 
to your home, lest Mutus reap more corn from the fields that were 
the dowry of his wife, and (which is a shameful thing, since he is 
sprung from meaner ancestors,) he be rather an object of admiration 
to you, than you to him. 

Whatever is beneath the earth, time will bring forth into the sun- 
shine ; it will bury and hide away things which now are glittering. 
Though Agrippa's colonnade and Appius' way have beheld you as a 
well-known visitor, it still remains for you to go to that place to 
which Numa has passed and Ancus too. 

If your chest or reins are tortured by a sharp disease, search for 
means to escape from that disease. You wish to live aright : what 
man does not? If virtue only can bestow this blessing, bravely give 
up all toys, and study her. 

You think virtue to be words, and a forest fagots: beware lest your 
rival get into harbour before you, lest you miss the market for your 
Cibyratic and Bithynian merchandise: let the circle of a thousand 
talents be completed; then as many more, and further let a third 
thousand follow, and the quantity which makes the heap a square. 
No doubt our Lady Money bestows a downed wife, and credit, and 



I. 7.] THE EPISTLES. x 7I 

friends, and high birth, and beauty; and Persuasion and Venus 
adorn the man of cash. The king of the Cappadocians, though 
opulent in slaves, is destitute of coin : be not you such as he. 
Lucullus, as they say, when asked if he could supply for the stage 
a hundred purple cloaks, says, "How can I lend so many? Yet I 
will search, and then send all that I find I have." So after, he writes 
to say that he has at his house five thousand purple cloaks ; and that 
the praetor might take some or all of them. Meagre is the household, 
where there are not many things superfluous, which escape the notice 
of the master, and are a profit to his knaves. So then, if wealth 
alone can make a man happy, and keep him so, be the first to go 
back to this work, the last to leave it off. 

If display and popularity create blessedness, let us purchase a 
slave, to tell us the names of the people, to nudge our left side, and 
compel us to stretch the hand of greeting across the tradesman's 
scales. "This man possesses much influence in the Fabian tribe, 
that man- in the Veline ; this other will confer the fasces, and in 
his malice snatch away the ivory curule chair from whomsoever he 
pleases." Introduce the words, "Brother," "Father;" according to 
each man's age, pleasantly adopt each man. 

If he who dines well, lives well, — it is daybreak, let us go whither 
the palate guides us : let us fish, let us hunt, as Gargilius used to 
do, who was wont to order that his toils, hunting-spears, and slaves, 
should in the early morning pass through the crowded forum and 
the people, that one mule out of many might bring home before the 
eyes of the people a purchased boar. With our food undigested, 
and swollen with the feast, let us bathe, heedless of what is becoming 
and what is not, worthy to be classed among the Caerites, a graceless 
crew of Ithacan Ulysses, to whom forbidden pleasure was dearer 
than their fatherland. 

If, as Mimnermus deems, nothing be pleasant without love and 
jests, then pass your life in love and jests. Live long, farewell ; if 
aught you know more true than these precepts which you read, 
frankly impart them to me ; if not, like me, use these. 

VII. 

1 — 24. Horace excuses himself to Maecenas for not keeping his pro- 
mise to come to Ro??ie, on the ground that it would be dangei'ous 
to his health. He feels that this reason will satisfy Maecenas, as 
being a friend who has always had a sincere regard for his 
welfare. 

Though I gave you my word that I would stay in the country only 
five days, I have been looked for, liar as I am, all through the 
month of August. But if you wish me to live in sound and perfect 
health, Maecenas, you will grant me when I fear sickness the indul- 
gence you grant me when sick, so long as the early figs and the 
heat adorn the undertaker with his guard of sable lictors, so long 



172 HORACE. [I. 7. 



as every father and fond mother are pale with anxiety for their 
children; and diligence in courtesies, and the routine of the law- 
courts, bring on fevers and unseal wills. But when winter spreads 
its sheet of snows over the Alban fields, your poet will go down to 
the sea, and spare himself, and read, crouching in a corner ; yourself, 
sweet friend, he will visit again with the Zephyrs, if you allow him, 
and the first swallow. 

'Twas not in the way a Calabrian host bids you eat pears, that 
you made me opulent. "Eat, pray." "That's enough." "But take 
away as much as you like." "You are very kind." "You will 
carry with you little presents not displeasing to your young children." 
"I am as much obliged by the gift, as if I were sent away laden 
with the pears." "As you please ; you leave them for the pigs to 
eat up to-day." The spendthrift and fool gives away those things 
which he disdains and hates ; this seed produces ingratitude, and 
will produce it throughout all years. An honest and wise man pro- 
fesses himself ready to grant favours to. the deserving; and yet knows 
well how coins differ from counters : I will also show myself deserv- 
ing, in proportion to the merit of my benefactor. 

25 — 45. If you would have me always at Roine, you must give me 
back my health and youth. I must be free, even if my freedom cost 
me the loss of all your favours. I would give back all, as Telema- 
chus refused the horses which were unsuited to his poor and rocky 
island. 

But if you are to be unwilling that I leave you for any place, 
you must give me back my strength of chest, the jet-black locks 
upon my slender brow; — you must give back my winning words, 
you must give back my engaging smile, and the mood to lament 
over the wine-cup the flight of saucy Cinara. 

It chanced that a slender little fox through a narrow chink had 
crept into a corn-bin ; and when she had eaten her fill, she was strug- 
gling in vain to get out again with her body plump : to her quoth 
a weazel at a distance, "If you wish to escape from that bin, you 
must be lean when you go back to the strait gap, which you passed 
through when lean." If I am' challenged by this allegory, I give 
up all ; I neither praise the poor man's sleep when surfeited myself 
with fattened fowls, nor for the riches of the Arabs do I barter the 
perfect freedom of my leisure. Often have you praised my modesty, 
and received from me before your face the names of "king" and 
"father," and not a word less generous in your absence; examine 
whether I have the power cheerfully to restore your gifts. Not ill 
spoke Telemachus, the offspring of enduring Ulysses : "Ithaca is not a 
region suited for horses, since it is neither spread out in level tracts 
nor lavish in a wealth of herbage ; Atrides, to yourself I will leave 
your gifts, because they are more fitted for you." Him that is little, 
little things become ; 'tis not imperial Rome that charms me now, 
but Tibur free from crowds, and peaceful Tarentum. 



I. 7.] THE EPISTLES. I73 

46 — 95. The story of Volteius Mena and his patron L. Marcius 
Philippus, with an implied allusion to the relationship between 
Horace and Maecenas. The attainment of our wishes does not 
always make us happy. 

Philippus, diligent and vigorous and renowned as a pleader, when 
he was returning from business about the eighth hour, and com- 
plaining, since he was then advanced in life, that the Cannae was 
too far from the Forum, observed, as they say, a certain man, just 
shaved, standing in the shadow of a barber's shop then empty, 
and deliberately cleaning with a pocket-knife his own nails. "De- 
metrius," (this boy was wont to receive not awkwardly the orders 
of Philippus,) "go, inquire, and bring me word, what place that 
man comes from, who he is, what is his condition, who is his father, 
or who is his patron." He goes, returns, and tells, that his name 
is Volteius Mena, an auctioneer, of slender fortune, known to be 
of unblamed character, one whose pleasure it is to bestir himself 
on occasion, and to take his ease, and to earn and spend, a man 
possessed of humble friends and a home of his own, and fond of 
the shows, and a game in the Plain of Mars when his duties are dis- 
patched. "I should like to inquire from the man himself all that you 
tell me; bid him come to dinner." Mena does not quite believe the 
invitation ; he silently wonders in his mind. Why say more? "Your 
master is very kind," he replies. "Can it be that he sends me a re- 
fusal?" "He does, the rascal; and cares not for you, or is afraid of you." 

In the [morning Philippus accosts Volteius while selling shabby 
second-hand goods to a crowd of the poor that lack the toga ; 
and, unsaluted, bids him good-day. He begins to plead to Phi- 
lippus his work and the ties of his trade, as an excuse for not 
having come in the morning to his house, and, lastly, for not 
having seen him first. " Consider that I have pardoned you on 
this condition, that you dine with me to-day." "As you please/ 7 
"Then you will come after the ninth hour; now go, diligently in- 
crease your fortune." When he came to dinner, after he had said 
things meet and unmeet to be uttered, he is at length sent away to 
bed. He, when he had oft been seen to run to the house as a fish 
to the concealed hook, a morning client, and now a settled guest, was 
bidden to go with his patron into the country that lies near the city, 
on the proclamation of the Latin Holidays. When mounted on the 
carriage drawn by nags, he ceases not to praise the Sabine country 
and climate. Philippus observes and laughs, and as he seeks to gain 
by every means matter for recreation and laughter, between giving 
him seven thousand sesterces and promising to lend him seven thou- 
sand, he persuades him to buy a small farm. So he does. Not to 
detain you with rambling talk beyond what is sufficient, he changes 
from a spruce man to a clown, and prates of nothing else but furrows 
and vineyards, makes ready the elm to receive the vine, half kills him- 
self over his pursuits, and ages through his passion for gain. But when 
his sheep were lost by theft, his goats by sickness, when his crop 



174 HORACE. [I.8, 9 . 

disappointed his hope, and his ox was worn to death with ploughing, 
exasperated at his losses, in the middle of the night he seizes his cod, 
and betakes himself in a rage to the mansion of Philippus. When 
Philippus sees him all squalid and unshorn, he says, "You seem to 
me, Volteius, to be too strict and bent on your work." "By Pollux, 
my patron, ' wretched' is what you would call me, if you wanted to 
give me my real name ! Wherefore by your Genius and right hand 
and household gods I beseech and conjure you, give me back to m> 
former life." 

96 — 98. The moral of the tale. 

Let him who has once observed how far the fortune he has given 
up excels that which he has aimed at, return betimes, and resume the 
things he has resigned. It is meet that every man should measure 
himself by his own rule and foot. 

VIII. 

To Celsus Albinovanus, who is serving on the staff of Tiberius in the 
province of Asia. This letter seems to be a reply. Horace speaks of 
his own fickleness and discontent, and gently recommends modera- 
tion to Celsus in prosperity. 

To Celsus Albinovanus joy and success ! Muse, at my request, bear 
back this wish to the comrade and secretary of Nero. If he asks you 
what I am doing, tell him that though many and grand are the things 
I threaten to do, my life is neither perfect nor pleasant ; not because 
the hail has beaten down my vines, or the heat withered my olives, or 
my flock is sickening on distant pastures ; but because, less healthy 
in mind than in all my body, I will listen to and learn no lessons to 
alleviate the malady ; because I am offended with my honest physi- 
cians, and angry with my friends, since they endeavour to shield me 
from my fatal lethargy; because I follow what has injured me, avoid 
what I believe will benefit me, am as fickle as the wind, loving Tibur 
when at Rome, and Rome when at Tibur. 

This done, ask him, Muse, of his health, how he manages his 
affairs and himself, how he stands in favour with his youthful patron 
and the staff. If he says "All is well," first wish him joy ; then for- 
get not to drop this warning into his delicate ears : "As you bear 
your fortune, Celsus, so shall we bear with you." 

IX. 

A letter of introduction written to Tiberius Claudius Nero, the future 
Emperor Tiberius, in behalf of Titius Septimius, to whom is ad- 
d? r essed the sixth ode of the second book. 

Claudius, 'tis evident that Septimius alone understands how highly 
you esteem me ; for when he begs and constrains me with intreaty, 
actually to endeavour to praise and commend him to you, as one who 
is worthy of the mind and house of Nero who chooses only what is 



I. io.] THE EPISTLES. 1?5 

honourable, when he deems that I enjoy the privileges of an intimate 
friend, he sees and knows what power I possess more clearly than 1 
do myself. Indeed, I mentioned many reasons why I should go 
excused; but I feared that I might be thought to have feigned 
my resources to be weaker than they are, as a dissembler of my 
real influence, and profitable to myself alone. So I, in escaping 
the disgrace of a heavier fault, have stooped to win the prize which 
belongs to an unabashed brow of the town. But if you commend me 
for doffing my modesty at the bidding of a friend, enroll this friend 
among your flock, and believe him brave and good. 

X. 

This Epistle is addressed to Aristius Euscus, as also is the twenty- 
second ode of the first Book. It begins with contrasting Horace's 
own love of the country with his friend 's fondness for the townj 
then follows the praise of Nature ; arid finally the poet dwells on 
the superior happiness that 77iode7'ate means and contentment afford, 
compared with riches a?td ambition. 

I, a lover of the country, bid Fuscus hail, a lover of the town ; for 
we are in fact on this point alone utterly unlike, though almost twins 
in everything beside ; since, in the spirit of a brother, whatever one 
denies the other denies, and we assent together, like old and well- 
known doves. 

You keep within the nest; I extol the brooks of the pleasant coun- 
try, and the rocks overgrown with moss, and the grove. Do you ask 
why? I live and am a king, so soon as I have left those things which 
you exalt to heaven with loud applause ; and, like the priest's run- 
away slave, I shrink from sweet wafers ; 'tis bread that I need, which 
now to me is choicer than honey-cakes. 

If it is proper to live agreeably to Nature, and a flat of ground to 
build a house upon must first be sought for, know you any place 
which surpasses the happy country? Is there a region where the 
winters are milder, where a more refreshing breeze allays both the 
raging of the Dog-star and the influence of the Lion, when full of 
fury he has received the stinging Sun? Is there a region where 
envious Care less distracts our slumbers? Is herbage in scent or 
sweetness inferior to Libyan mosaics? Is the water which struggles 
to burst the leaden pipes in the streets more limpid than that which 
dances noisily along its sloping bed? Why, a wood is carefully reared 
among the columns of various hue, and that mansion is praised, which 
surveys a length of fields. Should you drive Nature out with a pitch- 
fork, still she will every time speed back, and victoriously, by stealthy 
degrees, burst through your morbid squeamishness. 

He who knows not how to compare skilfully with Sidonian purple 
the fleeces which have drunk Aquinum's dye, will not incur a more 
certain loss, or one that comes closer home to his heart, than he who 
has not the power to discern falsehood from truth. 



176 HORACE. [I. ir. 

The man whom the flow of prosperity has overmuch delighted, will 
be shaken by a change of fortune. If you chance to admire anything, 
you will be loth to lay it down. Shun grandeur; beneath a humble 
roof you may outrun in the course of life kings and the friends o"f 
kings. A stag, superior in the fight, was wont to drive away a horse 
from their common pasture, until the weaker in the lengthened strife 
besought the aid of man and took the bit ; but after he had quitted 
his foe, an impetuous conqueror, he did not dislodge the rider from 
his back, nor the bit from his mouth. So, he who through dread of 
poverty lacks freedom that is more precious than metals, carries in 
his covetousness a master, and will be a slave for ever, because he 
knows not how to live upon a little. If the fortune he possesses does 
not fit a man, it will, like the shoe in the story, trip him up, if it be too 
large for his foot, pinch him, if too small. If pleased with your lot, 
you will live wisely, my Aristius, and not let me go unchastised, when 
I shall appear to be hoarding up more stores than are sufficient, and 
never to pause. Money amassed is each man's lord or slave ; though 
it deserves rather to follow than to pull the twisted rope. These lines 
I am dictating for you behind Vacuna's crumbling shrine, blest in all 
else, except that you are not my companion. 



XI. 

To Bullatius, who is travelling in Ionia. Change of scene does not 
alter the mind. If it be tranquil, the meanest and least interesting 
place is agreeable. 

Bullatius, what has been your impression of Chios and far-famed 
Lesbos? What of pretty Samos? What of Sardis, the palace of Croe- 
sus? What of Smyrna and Colophon? Whether above or below their 
fame, are they all of no account, compared with the Field of Mars 
and Tiber's stream? Does it come into your mind to wish for one of 
the cities of Attalus, or do you extol Lebedus, in your sickness of 
voyages and travels? You know what Lebedus is; a hamlet more 
desolate than Gabii and Fidenae; yet there I could choose to live, 
and, forgetful of my friends, and by them to be forgotten, to view 
from the land, at a distance, the turmoil of the deep. But neither 
will he who is hastening from Capua to Rome, when bespattered with 
rain and mud, choose to spend his life at an inn. ; nor does he who 
has caught a cold extol ovens and baths as fully furnishing a happy 
life: nor would you, if the driving South- wind chanced to toss you on 
the deep, on that account sell your ship beyond the ^gaean sea. 

For one in perfect soundness, Rhodes and fair Mytilene do the 
same as a cloak at midsummer, an athlete's dress amid the snowy 
blasts, Tiber during winter, a stove in the month of August. While it 
may be, and Fortune keeps her gracious looks, at Rome let Samos be 
praised, and Chios, and Rhodes, that are far away. Do you with 
grateful hand take every hour, which Heaven's grace shall chance to 
bless you with; and put not off your joys from year to year; that in 



Jl_ 



I. 12, 13.] 



THE EPISTLES. 



177 



whatever place you shall have been, you may say that you have lived 
agreeably : for if it be reason and discretion which take away our 
cares, and not a spot that commands a wide expanse of sea, 'tis the 
sky, and not the mind, they change who speed across the main. A 
busy idleness is tiring us ; by means of ships and chariots we seek to 
live aright. What you are seeking for is here; 'tis at Ulubrae, if 
serenity of spirit fail you not. 

XII. 

Horace introduces Pompeius Grosphus to Iccius, to whom he ad- 
dressed the 29th Ode of the first book* He was the steward of 
Agrippds property in Sicily. He compliments him, probably 
ironically, on his philosophy, advising him to be content, recom- 
mending Grosphus to him, telling him the news. 

Should you make a good use, Iccius, of the Sicilian rents of 
Agrippa, which you collect, Jove himself could not give you a greater 
abundance. Stay your complaints : he is not poor who enjoys a 
sufficiency of the use of things. Your digestion is good, your lungs 
sound, you are free from gout; well then, the wealth of kings can 
give you nothing better. If you are as one in the midst of rich 
dishes living abstemiously on vegetables and nettle-broth, then you 
will not change your style of life, though fortune's stream should 
suddenly flow for you with gold : either because riches cannot change 
your nature, or because you believe all else combined to be inferior 
to virtue alone. I am astonished at Democritus' cattle eating the 
crops in his field, whilst his active mind is abroad, absent from the 
body ; yet you, in the very midst of the itch and infection of gain, are 
the student of no mean philosophy, and still pursue your sublime 
studies ; enquiring what are the causes that curb the sea, what con- 
trols the year, whether by their own will move the wandering planets, 
or in obedience to a law; what buries in gloom, what brings out into 
light the moon's orb, what is the meaning and power of the discord- 
ant concord of the universe ; whether Empedocles is wrong, or the 
acuteness of Stertinius astray. Now whether you dine on fish, or 
murder only leeks and onions, do you cultivate the friendship of 
Pompeius Grosphus, and anticipate all his wishes ; his desires will 
never exceed reason and equity. . But that you be not ignorant of the 
state of our republic, know that the Cantabrians have yielded to the 
valour of Agrippa, the Armenians to Claudius Nero ; that Phraates 
on bended knee has accepted the imperial sway of Caesar ; that 
golden Plenty has poured forth fruits on Italy from her full horn. 

XIII. 

Horace had sent his poe7ns to A ugustus by Vinius A sella, on whose 
name he plays, giving him Sections suited to the joke on the 
asinine name. 

At your departure, Vinius, many a long lesson I gave you ; so do 
1 you deliver my sealed volumes to Augustus, only if he be well, in 



riOR. 



12 



i 7 3 HORACE. [I. 14. 

good spirits, only, in short, if he ask for them, lest you err through 
zeal in my cause, and by an excess of officious service bring dislike 
on my writings. Perchance the heavy burden of my book may chafe 
your back ; then rather throw it quite away, than rudely dash it down 
like panniers, where you were told to take it ; for so you would make 
your paternal name of Asina a jest, aud become the talk of the town 
Put out your strength up slopes, o'er rivers, through bogs ; when, sue 
cessful in your efforts, you have arrived at the end, keep your burden 
in such a position that you look not as though you carried the parce 
of books under your arm like a clown would a lamb, as drunke 
Pyrrhia a ball of stolen wool, as a poor tribesman his sandals anc 
little hat to a dinner ; see too that you tell not every one how you have 
perspired in carrying verses that may perhaps interest the eyes anc 
ears of Caesar : though stopped by many an urgent question, yet pus' 
forward still ; off with you, fare you well, beware lest you stumble an 
break what is entrusted to your charge. 

XIV. 






A letter to his bailiff, who dislikes the country, and longs to return 
to a city life; while Horace, detained at Ro?ne, has his heart 
in the country. 

Bailiff of my woods and of my farm which makes me my own 
master again, but which you despise though five households live 
on. it, and it often sends five worthy householders to Varia, let us 
have a friendly contest, whether you will root the thorns more vigor- 
ously from the land, or I from my soul, and whether Horace himself 
or his farm shall be in a better state. I am detained at Rome by 
the affectionate grief of Lamia, who sorrows for his brother, who 
mourns for his lost brother and will not be comforted, and yet my 
soul's desire ever bears me to my farm, as a steed eager to burst the 
barrier which is across the course. I call a country life, you a town 
life, happy: and doubtless he who likes another man's lot must dislike 
his own. So either in his folly unfairly blames the innocent place, 
while really in fault is the mind, which can never escape from itself. 
Once you were a slave of all work ; your thoughts, though you spoke 
not, desired a country life ; now you are a bailiff, and you long for the 
city and public games and baths. You know my consistency and 
my sorrow in departing, whenever hated business drags me to Rome. 
Opposite are our tastes, and herein the difference between you and 
me, that what you think a waste and ungenial wilderness, I and 
those on my side call pleasant, hating what you consider so beautiful. 
For the sake of the stews and greasy cook-shops you are smitten 
with regret for the city ; besides, the nook of the world you are now 
in would bear pepper and frankincense sooner than it would bear 
grapes, and there is no neighbouring inn to supply you with wine, 
nor any courtesan flute-player, to whose music you may strike the 
ground with heavy foot ; yet, for all that, with spades you work the 



I. 15.] THE EPISTLES. I *r 

fields long untouched, and attend to the unyoked ox, tilling him with 
gathered leaves ; then, if you have a lazy lit, the stream gives you 
more work; for if the rain falls, by many an embankment it must be 
taught to spare the sunny mead. Come now, hear what causes our 
want of agreement. Me once became finely-spun dresses and glossy 
locks ; I once, as you know, without a present could please the 
grasping Cinara ; I began to quaff cups of Falernian wine at noon ; 
but now a plain dinner suits me, and a siesta on the grass beside 
my stream : I am not ashamed of my past follies ; but I should be, 
if now I ended them not. There, where you are now, none with evil 
eye askance can impair my comforts, no one poisons me with the 
bite of secret malice. As I move the stones and clods, my neigh- 
bours laugh. You would rather munch your daily allowance with 
the city servants, and in your prayers your fancy flies to join them ; 
I whilst my shrewd city-slave envies you the use of wood, cattle, 
garden. Even so the lazy ox longs for housings, the horse would 
fain plough. My opinion is, that each should be content to practise 
the trade he knows best. 



XV. 

1 — 25. Horace is advised by the court doctor to try cold baths rather 
than hot ones, and makes e?iquiries of his friend Numonius Vala 
about Velia and Salernum. 

Write to me, friend Vala, about the winter at Velia and the climate 
of Saiernum, the manners of the people, the state of the roads 
thither: for Antonius Musa tells me that Baise is useless for my 
health, and has even made me disliked there, now that I bathe in 
cold water in the middle of winter. Indeed, the town laments the 
abandonment of its myrtle groves, and the contempt of its sulphur 
waters famous for driving from the system the lingering disease ; it 
is angry with patients who dare to use for the head-ache and indi- 
gestion the waters of Clusium,and who visit Gabii and its cold country. 
So I must needs change my place, and drive my horse beyond the 
familiar inn. "Whither so fast, my steed?" says the angry rider, 
pulling the left rein, "I am not now going to Cumas or Baice;" to a 
horse a bit is as a voice, its ear is in its mouth. Tell me, Vala, 
. which town is best supplied with corn; do they drink rain-water in 
u tanks, or perennial wells of fresh water ? As to the wines of that country, 
I set no store on them. In my own country retreat I can put up with 
any wine: when I go to the sea, I require something generous and 
mellow to drive away care, to make a rich hope flow through my 
veins and soul, to give me ready speech, and recommend me with 
renewed youth to a Lucanian mistress. Tell me, my friend, in 
which country are most hares, most wild-boars, in which seas are 

K found most fish and sea-urchins ; my hope is to return home from 
my visit as plump as any Phasacian ; so it is right your letter should 
tell me this, and I will trust you. 



i8o HORACE. [I. 1 6. 



26 — 46. Account of Maenius the parasite, which Horace applies to 

his own case. 

Maenius with spirit spent all his father and all his mother left 
him ; then he would pass for a witty parasite, he dined out anywhere, 
he had no fixed feeding-place ; if he were fasting, citizens and strangers 
were all alike to him, he would fiercely fasten any amount of abuse 
on any one, he was a very pest, a whirlwind and bottomless gulf to 
the market ; all he got he made a present to his greedy stomach. If 
he could obtain little or nothing from those who liked or feared his 
vices,, then he would dine on dishes of tripe, and cheap lamb ; three 
bears could not have eaten more: then he would, forsooth, condemn 
the stomachs of spendthrifts to be branded with a red-hot iron, quite 
a censor and a second Bestius. And yet, if he lighted on some 
better booty, he utterly consumed it all, and then would say, "I am 
not surprised at those who spend their goods in eating ; for there is 
nothing better than a plump thrush, nothing more beautiful than a 
rich paunch." Now in truth I, Horace, am this man ; when poor, I 
admire a safe humility, resolute enough in the midst of common 
things ; but let something better and richer come in my way, then 
I affirm that you alone are wise and live well, whose money is 
conspicuously invested in handsome country-houses. 

XVI. 

1 — 16. Horace describes to his friend Quinctins his farm, a?id its 

charms. 

To prevent your asking, my good Ouinctius, about my farm, 
whether with arable land it supports its master, or enriches him with 
the berries of the olive, or with orchards, or meadow-land, or the elm 
clad with vines ; I will describe to you its form and situation in 
easy chatty style. Imagine a line of hills, unbroken, . save by one 
shady valley, whose right side the morning sun illumines ; while, 
departing with its swift car, it warms the left. You may well praise 
the temperature. Why, as the thorns bear so liberally the cornels 
and sloes, as the oak and ilex gladden the herds with plenty of 
acorns, and their master with thick shade, you would say Tarentum 
was transported there, with all its leafy woods. My fountain too is 
fit to give a name to a stream, such, that neither is cooler nor purer 
the Hebrus that flows round Thrace : its waters run beneficial for the 
head-ache, beneficial for indigestion. This retreat so pleasant, if 
you will believe me, even delightful, ensures your friend's health at 
your service in September's days. 

17 — 45. Advice to his friend, whom he contrasts with the vain 7nan, 

who loves flattery and vulgar admiration. 

You are living the true life, if you take care to deserve your 

character. For some time past all we at Rome have pronounced 

you happy; but I fear that you may rely upon others rather than 



I. 16.] THE EPISTLES. 181 

on yourself, and that you may think that others besides the good and 
wise can be happy ; and so be like a man in a fever, who, because 
men say he is in good and sound health, conceals his sickness till 
the hour of dinner, and till his hands are seized with a trembling on 
the very table. It is the false shame of fools that tries to conceal 
ulcers not healed. If a man were to talk to you of wars fought by 
you on land and sea, and were to natter your idle ears, saying, "May 
Jove, to whom you and the city are alike dear, keep it doubtful, 
whether you wish the people's good most, or they yours:" in such 
words you will recognise praises due to Augustus alone. When you 
allow yourself to be addressed as wise and faultless, prithee, tell me, 
have you a right to the name to which you answer? No doubt you 
and I both are pleased with the name of a good man. But then the 
people who gave you the name to-day, to-morrow, if they please, will 
take it from you ; even as, having elected to high office an unworthy 
candidate, they can withdraw the honour from him. Then say they, 
"Resign this honour, it is ours." Resign it I must, and retire sad at 
heart. But if this same people declare that I am a thief, one lost to 
all sense of shame, assert that I strangled my father, am I to be 
stung by their calumnies, and change colour? For none does unde- 
served honour delight, or false charges alarm, save the man full of 
sin, who needs to be reformed. But who is the good man of our 
people? He, forsooth, who keeps the decrees of the senate, the 
statutes and laws of the state, before whom as judge are decided 
many grave suits, who is a sufficient security, whose testimony settles 
causes. And yet the whole of his family and the neighbourhood 
know the man, though decked out in a showy hide, yet inwardly to 
be full of all iniquity. 

46 — 62. Many a man who seems to be good is actuated by fear, not 
love ; his ?norality is hollow. 

My slave says to me, "I am no thief, no runaway." I reply, "You 
have your reward, you are not scourged." He says, "I have not 
committed murder." I reply, "You shall not be food for carrion- 
crows on the cross." Once more he says, " I am a good and honest 
servant." My Sabine bailiff shakes his head to that, and says, "No, 
no." Even so the wolf is on its guard and dreads a pit, a hawk the 
suspected snare, the gurnard the baited hook. Through love of virtue 
good men shrink from sin : you commit no crime, because you fear 
punishment. Let there be a hope of not being found out, you would 
treat things sacred and profane alike ; and if out of a thousand 
bushels of beans you steal one, my loss in that way is, as I judge, 
less, but not your crime. The good man admired by every forum 
and every tribunal, on the days that he appeases the gods by the 
offering of a pig or ox, with loud voice says, "O father Janus," with 
loud voice says, "O Apollo;" then, just moving his lips lest he be 
overheard, he prays, "Lovely Laverna, grant that no one may sus- 
pect me, grant me to pass for a righteous and holy man, cast over 
my sins and frauds a cloud as thick as night." 



1 82 HORACE. [I. r 7 . 

^3 — 79- The miser is a slave. The good man is free and fearless, 
come what will. 

How better or more free than a slave is a miser, when he stoops 
down to pick up a penny stuck in the mud at a cross-way, I confess 
I do not see : and the covetous man must be a coward ; and then he 
who lives the life of a coward, in my judgment never will be free. 
He has thrown away his arms, he has deserted the post of virtue, 
being ever busy and overwhelmed with the cares of making money. 
Now when you can sell a captive in war, it is a pity to kill him; he 
will be a useful slave ; if he be hardy, let him be a shepherd or 
ploughman, or let him traffic for you at sea in the midst of the win- 
try waves ; let him make grain cheaper by his labour, and bring in 
corn and all sorts of provisions. A good and wise man will boldly 
say : "Pentheus, king of Thebes, what do you unrighteously condemn 
me to bear and endure ?" The king says, "I will take away your 
goods." He replies, "Ah, you mean my cattle, chattels, beds, plate: 
you are welcome to them." Then says the monarch, " In handcuffs 
and fetters I will bind you, under the care of a cruel jailer." He 
replies, "The god, when I please, will himself loose me." By which 
I suppose he means this: "I will die; death is the final boundary- 
line of all things. " 

XVII. 

1 — 12. Directions to Scaeva, how to live with the great: at the 
same time, it is not altogether a life of ease. 

Scaeva, you are quite wise enough to manage your own affairs, 
and know the proper way of living with the great ; and yet you may 
learn a lesson from your humble friend, though he needs teaching 
himself; it is as if a blind man were to show the way; but see, if I 
too can say anything that you may care to make your own. Should 
pleasant rest and sleep till day-break delight you, should dust and 
the noise of wheels or of an inn annoy you, then would I advise you 
go to Ferentinum. For joys fall not to the lot of the rich alone, and 
he lives not amiss who from the hour of his birth to his death has 
met with no notice. But if you would do good to your family, and 
give yourself a more generous diet, then do you, lean and poor, visit 
him who can give you a good dinner. 

13 — 32. The difference between the Cynic and the Cyrenaic, and why 
Horace prefers the Cyrenaic. 

Diogenes said, "If Aristippus could be content with vegetables, 
he would not wish to dine with princes." Aristippus replied: "If 
my censor knew how to associate with princes, he would despise 
vegetables." Now inform me which of these two philosophers 1 
words and acts you approve, or, as younger than I am, hear why 
Aristippus' view is to be preferred. For they say he baffled the 
snarling Cynic thus: "I play the fool for my own sake, but you for 



I. 17.] THE EPISTLES. 



the people's : and my conduct is much the more correct and honour- 
able. That I may have a horse to ride, and be maintained by a 
great man, I pay him attentions : you solicit worthless things, inferior 
to him who gives them, although you bear yourself as one in want of 
nothing." Every complexion of life, condition, fortune, became Aris- 
tippus, aiming at a higher rank, but usually content with his present 
lot. But look at the man, whom his contentment clothes with his 
double coarse wrapper ; I shall be surprised if a change in his station 
would become him. The one will not wait for his purple cloak; in 
any dress, no matter what, he will walk in the crowded streets, and 
will gracefully support either character. The other will avoid a 
mantle of Milesian texture, as worse than a dog or snake, and will 
starve himself to death, unless you give him back his tatters ; so give 
him them back, and let the man live in his folly. 

33 — 42. To please great men is not the first of all things •, but 7ieither 

is it the last. 

To achieve great exploits, and to show before our citizens captive 
foes, is what rises to the throne of Jove, and aims at heavenly glory. 
But to please the leading men of the state is not the least of merits. 
'Tis not any man that can get to Corinth. He who fears not to be 
successful, remains inactive : well, and what of him who has reached 
the end? Has he acted like a man? And yet in this effort, or no- 
where else, is the point of our enquiry. One shrinks from the burden, 
as too heavy for his little soul and weak strength : another lifts it and 
carries it to the end. Either virtue is an empty name, or the man of 
enterprise rightly aims at honour and reward. 

43 — 62. Various directions how to live with the great. 

Those who in the presence of their patron say nothing of their 
poverty will get more than those who beg : it makes a difference, 
whether you take modestly, or snatch greedily. And yet to get is the 
beginning and origin of all you do. He who says, "I have a sister 
without any dowry, a poor unhappy mother, a farm I cannot sell, and 
which will not maintain my family," really cries aloud, "Give me 
food." Then chimes in a neighbour: "And I too should have a slice 
and part of the present.'' But, now, if the raven in the story could but 
have fed in quiet, it would have had more meat, and much less strife 
and envy. He, who, taken as a companion to Brundusium or pleasant 
Surrentum, complains of ruts and severe cold and rain, of his box 
being broken open, or his travelling goods being stolen, plays off the 
well-known tricks of a courtesan often bewailing her loss of a chain 
or ankle-band, so that at last there is no faith in real losses and grief. 
Nor does one, who has once been made a fool of, care to raise from 
the crossings a beggar with a broken leg; many a tear may run 
down his cheeks, he may swear by the name of holy Osiris, and say 
"Believe me, I am in earnest; cruel men, lift up a lame man." "Go 
and get a stranger!" the neighbours shout back till they are hoarse. 



1 84 HORACE. [I. iS. 



XVI II. 

I — 20. In living with the great we should aim at the proper mean 
between obsequiousness and roughness. 

Unless I much mistake you, my free-spoken friend Lollius, you will 
dislike appearing in the character of a parasite, while you profess to 
be a friend. As a matron will be unlike and different in look from 
a courtesan, so, distinct from an insincere parasite will be a friend. 
There is a vice the very opposite of this, almost worse, a rustic rough- 
ness, rude and offensive, recommending itself by a close-shaven skin 
and black teeth, claiming to pass for simple candour and sterling 
worth. But virtue is a mean between vices, removed from either 
extreme. One man is unduly obsequious, the jester of the lowest 
couch at dinner ; with dread he watches the nod of his wealthy enter- 
tainer ; he so echoes his words, and catches them up as they fall, that 
one would suppose he was a boy repeating his lessons to a severe 
master, or an actor in a farce playing an inferior part. Another will 
often wrangle for any trifle, as for goat's wool, he will fight for it, 
armed to the teeth : "What," says he, "am I not to be believed above 
all others? am I not to blurt out as sharply as I please my real 
thoughts ? if so, I would not thank you for a second life." . What then 
is the point of dispute? Just whether Castor or Dolichos is most 
skilful ; which is the best road to Brundusium, the Minucian or 
Appian. 

21 — ^36. There should be no rivalry in style of living with one's 
patron. What Eutrapelus did. 

The man whom ruinous love and desperate gambling beggars, 
whom vanity clothes and anoints beyond his means, who is possessed 
with a thirst and craving hunger of money, to whom poverty is a 
shame and a bugbear, has a rich friend furnished with ten times as 
many vices ; this rich friend hates and dreads him, or if he hate him 
not, then he sets up to guide him, and, like an affectionate mother, 
would have him wiser and more virtuous than himself, and says what 
indeed is pretty near the truth: "Rival me not, my wealth allows 
folly ; you are a poor man ; a w 7 ide toga becomes not a sensible client ; 
cease to contend with me." There was one Eutrapelus, who, if he 
wanted to do a man a mischief, would send him costly dresses ; for 
he knew that the silly happy fool would, with the new dresses, assume 
forthwith new notions and new hopes ; would sleep to daylight, neg- 
lect for a mistress his honourable duty to his patron, borrow at a 
high rate of interest, and would end by being a gladiator, or hire him- 
self to drive a market-gardeners hack. 

37 — 66. Neither should there be any prying into o, patrorfs secrets, 
nor any disregard of his tastes. An allusion to Lolliuf amuse- 
ments. 
Never pry into a patron's secrets, and if he trusts you with one, 

keep it hidden, though tried by wine or anger. Praise not your own 



I. 1 8.] THE EPISTLES. j$- 

tastes, censure not those of your friend : if he has a mind to hunt, do 
not be for composing poems. In this way burst the band of brotherly 
affection between the twins Zethus and Amphion, until the lyre dis- 
liked by the graver brother was silenced. As, it is said, Amphion 
gave way to his brother's tastes, so do you comply with the gentle 
orders of your great friend : and when he would take into the fields 
his hounds and his mules laden with ^Etolian nets, do you rise and 
lay aside the crabbed temper of the unsocial muse, that at dinner you 
may enjoy with him your food with that relish which toil alone can 
give. Hunting is a national pursuit, gets a man a good name, pro- 
longs life, strengthens the limbs, specially in the days of health, when 
in fleetness you surpass the hounds, in strength the wild boar. Be- 
sides, no one wields manly arms more gracefully than you do: you 
know how the ring of spectators applauds when you take your part 
in the reviews on the Plain of Mars ; in short, when very young, you 
served in the fierce war against the Cantabrians under that general, 
who is now taking down from the Parthian temples our standards, 
and annexes to the Italian empire all that is as yet unconquered. 
Further, to prevent your refusing and standing aloof without excuse, 
remember how, at times, you amuse yourself on your paternal estate, 
though you always take care to do nothing out of tune and harmony : 
your mock fleet divides the boats : your servants represent the battle 
of Actium in sham fight ; you are one captain, your brother the other ; 
the lake is the Adriatic: and so you contend, till winged victory 
crowns one or other of you with the leaves of bay. Now he, who 
thinks you sympathise with his tastes, will approve and praise your 
sport with hearty applause. 

66 — 95. Advice to be cautious, not to introduce others without en- 
quiry ', to assimilate oneself to a fiatrorfs manners arid disposi- 
tion. 

That I may further advise you, if indeed you need an adviser, often 
consider what and to whom you speak of any one. Avoid a curious 
man ; he is sure to be a gossip. Ears wide open to hear will not 
faithfully keep a secret. A word once uttered is gone past recall. 
Admire no maidservant or boy in the marble hall of your respected 
friend; lest the master of the pretty boy or dear girl make you 
foolishly happy with such a trifling present ; or, by refusing it, vex 
you. Consider carefully the character of any one you recommend, 
lest presently his vices cause you shame. We make mistakes, and 
introduce an unworthy person : so then, if such an one be found guilty, 
do you, once deceived, cease to defend him : on the other hand, one 
you know thoroughly, if he be attacked by calumny, do you protect 
and uphold him, confident in your patronage: for if he be assailed by 
Theon's slanderous tooth, do you not feel that the danger will soon 
reach yourself? Surely your own property is in peril, if the neigh- 
bouring wall is in flames; and a fire, if neglected, gathers strength. 
To those who have never tried, it may be pleasant to court a great 
friend: he who has tried, dreads the courting. While your vessel is 



1 86 HORACE. [I. 19. 

out at sea, look to it, lest the gale shift and bear you back. Serious 
men dislike a cheerful companion, those who love a joke dislike a 
serious one, the quick-witted dislike a sedate companion, the careless 
him who is busy and industrious : hard drinkers of Falernian wine 
after midnight will not bear you if you refuse the offered cups, how- 
ever loudly you may declare you fear feverish heats at night. Remove 
the cloud from your brow : usually a modest man passes for a reserved 
man, a silent man for a sour-tempered one. 

96 — 112. But, however occupied, neglect not mural philosophy. This, 
says Horace ', is my meditation in the happy retirement of my coun- 
try-home. 

Midst all these duties, study, and enquire of learned men how you 
may calmly pass your days ; asking, whether you are still harassed 
and troubled by desires never satisfied, or by fears and hopes of things 
indifferent ; whether virtue is a lesson to be learnt, or nature's gift ; 
what will stay your cares and make you again a friend to yourself; 
what gives pure tranquillity, is it honour, or pleasant gain, or a 
1 retired path and way of a life unnoticed? Now, when Digentia's cool 
stream refreshes weary me, Digentia, from which drinks Mandela, a 
village wrinkled with cold, what suppose you, my friend, are my 
thoughts and prayers? They are even these: "May I have my pre- 
sent means, or even less ; may I live for myself the remainder of my 
days, if it be Heaven's will still to spare me : may I have a good supply 
of books and food to last each year ; may I not waver, as one hanging 
on the hopes of an uncertain hour!" But enough, if I pray Jove for 
what he gives and takes away : may he give me life and means : a 
contented mind I will secure for myself. 



XIX. 

1 — 20. Horaces edicts about poetry only get hi?n plenty of servile 

imitators. 

If you believe old Cratinus, my learned friend Maecenas, no poems 
written by water-drinkers can long live, or long be popular. As soon 
as Bacchus enlisted crazy poets among the ranks of his Satyrs and 
Fauns, the dear Muses generally smelt of wine in the morning. 
Homer from his praise of wine is convicted of having been given 
to wine : father Ennius himself never sprang forth to sing of arms, 
till he was merry with wine. " I assign to the sober the dry business 
of the Forum and of Libo's hallowed plot, I interdict the grave from 
poetry." This my decree was no sooner issued, than the poets began 
to emulate one another in drinking strong wine at night, and reeking 
of it by day. What then ! supposing a man with rough and stern 
countenance, bare foot, and with the texture of a scanty toga, were to 
ape Cato, would he therefore reproduce the virtues and morals of 
Cato? Iarbita heard the voice of Timagenes, and, vying with him, 



I. 20.] THE EPISTLES. T Sy 

burst a blood-vessel, so anxious was he to be thought a man of wit 
and eloquence. An example, easily imitated in faults, is apt to mis- 
lead : supposing I happened to have a pale face, they would drink 
cummin that thins the blood. O ye apes of others, ye are a servile 
herd : how often have your troubled efforts moved either my spleen or 
my laughter? 

21 — 34. Horace's claims to originality. 

Through ground as yet unoccupied I freely trod, not in the foot- 
steps of others. The man who has confidence in himself leads the 
swarm that follows. I first to Latium showed the Parian iambics, 
following the metre and spirit of Archilochus, but not his subjects, 
nor the words that drove Lycambes to suicide. And lest you should 
crown me with leaves more scanty, because I ventured not to alter 
the metres and art of the poetry, recollect that masculine Sappho 
tempers her genius by the measures of Archilochus, so does Alcaeus 
too, though in subjects and arrangement of metres he differs, looking 
for no father-in-law whom to •befoul with malignant verses, nor 
weaving a halter for any bride by defaming lines. Alcaeus, cele- 
brated by no Roman tongue before, I first as Latin lyrist have 
made known: 'tis my pride that I introduced what was till then 
untried, and that I am read by the eyes and held in the hands of 
freeborn Romans. 

35 — 49. Horace did not court publicity, and is therefore abused. 

Perhaps you may like to know why the ungrateful reader, though 
at home he admires and praises my humble works, yet abroad dis- 
parages and censures them. I hunt not for the applause of the fickle 
public, by gifts of expensive dinners, and presents of cast-off clothing : 
I will not lower myself by listening to and defending grand writers, so 
as to curry favour with the cliques and platforms of the grammarians: 
hence all these expressions of spite. I should be ashamed to read to 
crowded theatres writings unworthy of such an audience, or to make 
a fuss about my trifling verses. If I use this language, then says my 
critic, "You are ironical, sir, reserving your lines for the ear of our 
Jove : for you are confident that you alone distil poetic honey, fair in 
; your own eyes." These sneers I fear to answer with scorn, and, 
dreading that I may be torn by the sharp nails of my enemy, I 
cry aloud that I like not his place, and beg for an interval from this 
sport. For sport like this brings forth a hurried and passionate con- 
test, whence spring fierce enmities and deadly war. 

XX. 

1 — 8. Horace warns his book of the fate that attends publishing. 

You seem, my book, to be looking wistfully towards Vertumnus and 

Janus ; I suppose you want to be published by the Sosii, neatly 

\ polished by their pumice-stone. You hate the locks and seals, which 



x88 HORACE. [I. 20. 

modesty is thankful for; you lament that so few see you; you praise 
publicity. I did not so educate you. Well then, off with you whither 
you long to descend from my house. Remember, once started you 
cannot return. When severely criticized you will say, "Wretched 
book that I am! what have I done? what did I want?" You know 
well you will be rolled up tight enough, when your admirer is sated 
and weary of you. 

9—28. You 7nay be popular for a time, but presently be sent into the 
provinces, or made a school-book of. However, if you have an 
opportunity, give the public so?ne account of him who wrote 
you. 

Now perhaps through hatred of your sin I am a poor prophet ; but 
I think you will be loved at Rome, till the bloom of youth leave you. 
Then, thumbed by the people, you will become dirty, and in silence 
will be food for the sluggish moths, or will be banished to Utica, or 
sent in a bundle to Ilerda. Then your monitor, to whom you will not 
listen, will have his laugh, being like the man whose donkey was 
restive, and he pushed him over a precipice in a passion: for who 
would strive to save another against his wall? This too awaits you, 
that, when overtaken by lisping old age, you will teach boys the rudi- 
ments of their learning in the streets of the suburbs. However, if the 
warm sun collects a few more to listen to you, tell them about me, 
how, the son of a freedman in narrow circumstances, I spread my 
wings beyond my nest ; what you take from my birth, add to my 
merits ; you may mention how I have pleased the chief men of the 
state in peace and in war; describe me as short in stature, grey 
before my time, fond of the sunshine, quick-tempered, soon appeased. 
Should any one ask my age, inform him that 1 completed my forty- 
fourth December, in the year when Lollius received Lepidus as col- 
league. 



EPISTLES. BOOK II. 

I. 

i — 4. Introductoiy wnpfanent to Augustus. 

Since alone you support the burden of so many great affairs, pro- 
tecting the Italian state by your arms, gracing it by morals, improv- 
ing it by laws, I were an offender against the public weal, were I by 
a long epistle to occupy your time, O Caesar. 



5 — 17. Augustus alone has escaped that envy, which has disparaged 
the virtues of all others. 

Romulus, and father Liber, and the brothers Castor and Pollux, 
heroes received after great exploits into the celestial mansions, whilst 
civilizing the world and the human race, settling rough wars, 
allotting lands, founding cities, lamented that their merits did not 
meet with the gratitude which they had hoped for : he who crushed 
* the dreadful hydra, and subdued the well-known monsters by the 
labours which fate ordained, by experience found that envy was a 
monster not to be conquered till the hour of his death. He who de- 
presses the merits of others who are inferior to himself, blasts them by 
his own brilliancy ; when his light is quenched, his memory will be 
loved. But to you, while still with us, we give honours betimes, and 
set up altars on which to swear by your name, and confess that none 
like you has e'er arisen, none will e'er arise. 

18 — 33. Horace passes to his subject, 7iamely, that the unreasonable 
adnm'ation for ancient W7'iters is to be co7idem7ied. 

Yet this your people, so wise and just in this one instance of 
setting you above our national, above the Grecian heroes, in other 
matters judge by a very different standard and measure, and despise 
and dislike all except what they see to be removed from earth and to 
have passed from life; for so bigoted are they in their admiration 
of the ancients, as to maintain that the twelve tables enacted by the 
decemvirs, which forbid to sin, the treaties made by the kings either 
with Gabii or with the sturdy Sabines, the books of the priests, the 
old tomes of the soothsayers, are all utterances of the Muses on 
the Alban mount. If, simply because the oldest writings of the 



I 



190 HORACE. [II. 1. 

Greeks are also the best, Latin writers are to.be weighed in the 
same balances, there is nothing more to be said ; the olive has no 
stone, the nut has no shell ; we have attained the summit of glory ; in 
painting and music we excel the Greeks, and wrestle more skilfully 
than their athletes anointed with oil. 

34 — 49. The question may be reduced to a reductio ad absurdum. 

If time improves our poems, as it does our wines, I shall be glad to 
know, how many years exactly may claim a value for writings. 
Ought a writer deceased a hundred years ago to be reckoned among 
the ancient and perfect, or among the modern and worthless? Let 
a fixed time end our dispute. Well, then, he is an ancient and 
approved author who has completed his century of years. What 
then, he who died a month or year short of that time, in which class 
should we put him, among the ancient poets, or among those whom the 
present age and posterity should reject with scorn? Well, he may 
fairly be set among the ancients, who wants a short month or even a 
whole year. I take advantage of what is allowed me ; and, like one 
who plucks at the hairs of a horse-tail, so I subtract first one year, 
then another, till, like a sinking heap, he, baffled, fails, who looks in 
annals, and estimates merit by years, and can admire nothing till tin 
goddess of death has hallowed it. 

50 — 62. An account of the characteristics of the old poets, 

Ennius, a wise and vigorous writer, and a second Homer, as th 
critics say, seems to trouble himself but little as to the result of hi 
promises, and of his dreams after the fashion of Pythagoras. Is not 
Naevius constantly thumbed by us? Does he not cling to our 
memories as though he were almost an author of to-day? So sacrec 
do we think each ancient poem. When the question arises, which 
poet is superior, then Pacuvius bears the palm of a learned olc 
writer, Accius of being a sublime one ; it is said that Afranius' gown 
would have suited Menander, that Plautus bustles on in his plays 
after the pattern of Sicilian Epicharmus, that Caecilius excels in 
dignity, Terence in art. These are the authors whom mighty Rome 
learns by heart ; their plays she beholds, crammed in the contracted 
theatre ; these she accounts and ranks as poets, from the age of the 
writer Livius even to our days. 

63 — 92. Horace agaifi condemns the undiscriminati7ig admiration 
of the ancients then in fashion. 

Sometimes the people judge correctly; at other times they err. 
If they admire, and glorify the old poets so, as to prefer none, nay to 
compare none to them, they are wrong. But if they allow that these 
are sometimes too old-fashioned, generally harsh, often slovenly, 
then the people is sensible, and agrees with me, and Jove sanctions 
the judgment. When I was little, Orbilius, my master, dictated to 



II. i.] THE EPISTLES. 1()l 

me the poems of Livius ; he was fond of flogging me, but I am not 
dead set against those poems, nor think they ought to be destroyed ; 
but that they should be considered faultless and beautiful and 
almost perfect, does astonish me ; in which, if by chance a word 
should appear not quite ungraceful, or if here and there a verse is 
found not so inelegant as the rest, unfairly it recommends and sells 
the whole poem. I lose my patience, when works are censured, not 
as uncouth, or rough, but as new, and when for the ancient poets 
men demand, not indulgence, but honour and reward. If I question 
whether Atta's play is successful amidst the saffron and flowers of the 
stage, nearly all our fathers would exclaim that shame is lost, seeing 
that I endeavour to censure a drama acted by dignified -^Esopus 
and learned Roscius : for these men either deem nothing right, 
except what they approve themselves, or scorn to listen to their 
youngers, and, when old, to allow that what they learnt when boys 
is not worth preserving. So, he who extols the song of the Salii 
written by Numa, and who wishes to be thought the only man who 
knows that, of which really he is as ignorant as I am, he in truth is 
no supporter or admirer of the genius of the dead, but the detractor 
of our writings ; us and our writings he maliciously dislikes. If the 
Greeks had disallowed what then was new, as much as we do, what 
had been ancient now? Or what had remained to be read and 
thumbed by the public in general use? 

93 — 117. The taste of the Greeks contrasted with that of the old 
Romans; who, however, now are changed, and are a nation of 
would-be poets. 

When Greeks put wars aside, they took to trifles ; and, as fortune 
smiled, sank into luxury ; then did they burn with passion for athletic 
games or equestrian races ; or admired sculpture in marble, ivory, 
and bronze ; or with eyes and souls hung enraptured on pictures ; or 
delighted to listen to players on the flute, and tragic actors ; like an 
infant girl at play under its nurse's care, what eagerly it loved, that 
soon it, sated, left. For is there anything liked or disliked, that 
you do not suppose is quickly changed? Such was the character of 
the good times of peace, and of the gales of prosperity. At Rome 
'twas long the delight and fashion to be awake at dawn and open the 
house ; to expound the law to a client, to lend money on good security 
to solvent debtors, to learn from one's elders or to teach one's juniors 
■ how to increase property, how to check wasteful indulgence. 
Changed is the taste of the fickle people ; and now all glow with one 
poetic passion ; boys and grave fathers alike crown their locks with 
chaplets at their banquets, and dictate verses. I, who declare I am 
no poet, am found to tell more lies than the Parthians, and, before 
sun-rise, wake and call for pen, and paper, and writing case. He who 
was never on board, fears to steer a ship ; none but a professional 
man dares to prescribe southernwood for a patient; physicians 
undertake physicians' duty ; artizans alone handle tools : but, learned 
and unlearned, we scribble verses, all alike. 



1 92 HORACE. [IT. i. 

118 — 138. Yet this poetic madness is innocent; nay, is not without 

advantages. 

And yet this frenzy, arid slight madness, has many good points, as 
you may thus argue : rarely avarice possesses the poetic mind ; 
verses are the bard's darlings, other passion he has none ; as to 
losses, runaway slaves, fires, he laughs at them ; to cheat a friend or 
ward he never schemes ; his diet pods of beans, or brown bread ; 
though an inactive and poor soldier, yet is he useful to the state, for 
surely you will allow that small things are a help to great. The 
tender lisping mouth of a child the poet forms ; even in their early 
days he turns the ears of the young from evil words ; presently he 
fashions the heart by kindly precepts, he is the corrector of rough- 
ness, of malice, of anger ; he tells of virtuous deeds, the dawn of life 
he furnishes with illustrious examples ; the helpless and sad of soul 
he comforts. Whence could the pious boys and virgins learn their 
hymns of prayer, had not the Muse granted us a bard? The chorus 
prays for aid, and Heaven's presence feels, and in set form of 
persuasive prayer implores rain from above, averts disease, .drives 
away dreaded dangers, obtains peace, and a season rich with its 
crops : appeased by hymns are gods above, and gods below. 

139 — 167. The origin of the Roman drama, its licence and restraint; 
then Grecian literature tamed her rude conqueror. 

Our rural ancestors, content with a little, having housed their 
grain kept holyday, and refreshed their bodies, yes, and their souls 
too, patient of labour through the hope of rest ; so together with the 
partners of their work, their boys and faithful wives, they used to 
propitiate the goddess of the earth with a pig, the god of the woods 
with milk, with flowers and wine the Genius who forgetteth not how 
short is life. These holydays introduced the Fescennine licence, 
which in alternate verse poured forth rustic taunts, when liberty, 
gladly welcomed each returning year, would sport in pleasing mood, 
until the jests grew fierce, and began to turn into furious lampoon 
unrestrained, and, threatening, passed through honourable families, 
no one forbidding. Stung to the heart were those whom the blood- 
stained tooth of satire bit ; even those as yet untouched took alarm 
at the common danger; and so a law was passed, and punish- 
ment imposed, to forbid that any one should be described by 
malicious verses : thus they changed their note, compelled through 
dread of death by cudgelling to use better language and to please. 
We conquered Greece, and Greece conquered her rude captor, and 
introduced the arts into rustic Latium ; and so that rough Saturnian 
measure fell into disuse, and wit polite expelled the offensive venom 
of satire, though for many a day lingered and linger still the traces 
of our rustic vein. For not till late did the Romans apply their 
intellect to Greek letters, and only after the Punic wars, when now 
at rest, began to enquire what lessons Sophocles and Thespis and 



II. i.] THE EPISTLES. ! 93 

yEschylus could teach. They assayed, too, to see if they could 
properly translate, and were satisfied with their attempts ; for gifted 
are they with sublimity and vigour, and breathe the spirit of tragedy 
sufficiently, and are not wanting in a happy boldness, but ignorantly 
consider a blot ugly, and dread to correct. 

1 68 — 1 8 1. The difficulties of comedy ', and its discouragements. 

'Tis thought that comedy, drawing its subjects from humble life, 
requires less pains ; but the truth is, the labour is greater as the 
indulgence is less. Observe how Plautus supports the characters of 
the young man in love, of the careful old father, of the tricky pander ; 
how great and grand Dossennus is in greedy parasites, how loose the 
sock in which he runs o'er the stage ; to fill his purse is his desire, 
if that be done, he cares not whether his play succeeds or fails. If 
Vanity in her windy chariot bears the poet to the stage, an in- 
attentive spectator takes the breath out of his sails, an atten- 
tive one puffs them out again. So light, so small is that, which 
casts down or revives a soul craving for praise. Farewell the stage ! if, 
as my play fails or thrives, I grow lean or fat. 

182 — 207. The noise of the theatre ', and the vulgar taste for scenery 
and spectacles, may well discourage a poet. 

Oft, too, even a bold poet is terrified and put to flight, when those 
superior in number, inferior in worth and rank, an ignorant and 
stolid crowd, prepared, should the knights object, to fight it out, in 
the midst of the play call for a bear or boxers ; such are the sights 
the rabble will applaud. But now-a-days even the knights' pleasure 
has all fled from the ear to the empty joys of the uncertain eyes. For 
four hours or more the curtain never drops, while troops of horse and 
files of foot pass swiftly by, unhappy monarchs are dragged across 
the stage with hands bound behind their back ; then Belgic cars, easy 
carnages, Gallic wagons, ships, speed on, and borne along is ivory, the 
spoil of war, and captured Corinth's wealth. Could Democritus 
return to life, he would have a laugh, when the cameleopard, a 
distinct species, or a white elephant, arrests the gaze of the crowd ; 
Democritus would behold the people more attentively than any play, 
no actor could give him so good a spectacle as the people them- 
selves ; he would suppose the poets were addressing a deaf donkey ; 
for what voice of man can overcome the noise that echoes through 
our theatres? One would think it was the roaring of the woods of 
mount Garganus, or of the Tuscan sea. So great the din at the 
representation of the play, at the spectacle of the arts and wealth 
of foreign lands; as soon as the actor, covered with his tawdry finery, 
stands on the stage, then is heard the clapping. But has he spoken? 
No, not a syllable. What then has met this approval? The robe 
that vies with purple through its Tarentine dye. 

HOR. 13 



l 9 4 HORACE. [II. I 



208 — 213. Horace hopes he can estimate, as well as any one, the 
genius of the true poet. 

Yet, lest you think I damn with faint praise that poetry which I 
decline to try, but others write successfully, I will say that he seems 
to me as one able to walk on a tight rope, who, a true poet, tortures 
my breast with his fictions, can enrage, then soothe me, fill me with 
unreal terrors, and by his magic art set me down either at Thebes 
or Athens. 






214 — 231. Horace would now reco?n?nend to his patron those who 
write for readers, though he allows poets are a set of men, that, by 
their vanity, stand in their own way. 

But some, rather than endure the disdain of the haughty spectator, 
prefer to trust themselves to the mercy of a reader ; to such now do 
you pay a little attention, if you would fill with books your gift 
worthy of Apollo, and invite our poets to ascend verdant Helicon 
with greater enthusiasm. True, we are a set who do ourselves much 
mischief, ('tis as though I were to destroy my own vineyard) when 
you are anxious or tired, and we offer you our volume ; when a friend 
ventures to censure a single verse, and we are annoyed; when, 
unasked, we repeat passages already read ; when we lament the 
want of notice of our labours, and of our poems spun with so fine a 
thread ; or when we expect that so soon as you have heard we are 
composing verses, you will be so kind as, unasked, to send for us, and 
place us above want, and force us to write. However, it is worth en- 
quiring, what sort of poets will be the guardians of a virtue tried 
abroad and at home, and not to be entrusted to any unworthy bard. 

232 — 244. Alexander the Great was a good judge of painting and 
sculpture, but not of poetry. 

A favourite of Alexander the Great was that wretched poet Chceri- 
lus; uncouth were his verses, born in an unlucky hour; yet he put 
down to their credit the Philips he received for them, the king's coin. 
However, as ink when touched leaves a mark and stain, so, generally, 
do poets by bad verses disfigure brilliant exploits. And yet that 
same king, who in his lavishness paid so dearly for that ridiculous 
poem, by an edict forbad any one except Apelies to paint himself, 
and any one besides Lysippus to cast a bronze statue representing 
the countenance of the valiant Alexander. But now transfer that 
judgment, so nice in viewing these works of art, to books and to .the 
gifts of the Muses, and you would swear that he was born in Bceotia's 
dull atmosphere. 



II. 2.] THE EPISTLES. I9S 

245—270. Augustus showed a better taste than Alexander. Horace 
would gladly sing his praises, but lacked the ability, and wishes 
to avoid the disgrace of being a poet, whose poems are but waste 
paper. 

Dear to you were the poets Virgil and Varius, and they do not 

disgrace your judgment of them, nor the gifts received by them 

to the great credit of the giver; for not so well by bronze statues 

is expressed the countenance, as in the works of poets shine forth the 

: character and qualities of illustrious heroes. Nor do I prefer my 

satires and epistles, that crawl in prose along the ground, to the 

celebration of exploits, and to the singing of tracts of countries, of 

rivers, and of forts crowning mountains, and of barbaric realms, and 

r how that wars are ended throughout the whole world under your 

: auspices; for the closed bars now confine Janus the guardian of 

our peace, and the Parthians dread Rome under your imperial sway : 

but my power is unequal to my will ; and your majesty admits not 

1 of a weak poem, nor does my modesty venture to essay a theme 

beyond my strength to complete. Zeal offends by a foolish love, 

I and, most of all, when it would recommend itself by verses and 

[. the poet's art ; for we all learn and remember more readily what 

F we deride, than what we admire and venerate. I value not the 

\ officious attention which disgusts me, and I do not choose to be 

represented in bust of wax, if the likeness is to be bad ; nor care 

I to be lauded in ill- written verses, lest I . have to blush at the 

4 stupid offering, and, together with my chronicler, like a corpse 

" stretched out in an open coffin, be carried down into the street where 

J they sell frankincense and scents and pepper, and all that is wrapped 

in the pages of the dunce. 

II. 

1 — 19. A playful illustration of Florus^ conduct towards himself 

Florus, honest friend of good and great Nero, supposing some one 
were to try to sell you a slave, a lad born at Tibur or Gabii, and 
were to deal with you as follows: "Here, sir, is a boy, fair, and 
handsome from top to toe, he is your slave for eight thousand 
sesterces ; born in my house, he is quick in his services at his master's 
beck, has a slight tincture of Greek, is suited for any employment 
whatever, you may fashion him to what you please like soft clay ; he 
can sing too ; untrained is his voice, but pleasant to one drinking his 
wine. Many recommendations shake confidence, if the seller praises 
his wares unfairly, to get them off his hands. No difficulties press 
i me ; I am not rich, but owe no man anything ; none of the slave- 
dealers would give you such a bargain ; nor indeed is it every one 
who would get it from me. Once, it is true, he played truant, and, 
I as is natural, hid himself under the stairs through dread of the whip 
i that was hanging up. You would pay the money if you can get over 

13—2 



196 HORACE. [II. 2 . 

his running away, his one fault." The seller, I suppose, may take 
the money, without fear of any legal penalty. With your eyes open 
you bought a faulty slave ; you had notice of the condition : can you 
then prosecute the seller, and trouble him with an unjust suit? 

20 — 40. He had told his friend not to expect a letter ', much less any 
verses, and illustrates the case from the story of a soldier of 
Lucullus. 

I told you, my friend, when you set out, that I was indolent, I told 
you I was almost unfit for such duties of friendship, to prevent 
your so cruelly scolding me, if no letter from me were delivered to 
you. What good did I then do, if, after all, you attack the laws 
which are in my favour? Further, too, you complain that the verses 
you looked for I never sent, false man that I am. In Lucullus' army 
was a soldier, he had collected money by many a toil ; one night he 
was tired and snored, and lost it all to a farthing : after that, he was 
as fierce as any wolf, angry with the enemy and himself alike ; as 
a hungry beast that savage shows its teeth, he stormed, so they 
say, a royal garrison admirably fortified and rich with many stores. 
By this exploit he became famous, is adorned with honourable gifts; 
over and above, receives twenty thousand sesterces. It so happened 
about this time, that the praetor would storm a castle, no matter 
what; then he began to exhort the man with words that might 
have roused even a coward's soul, saying: "Go, my friend, where 
your valour calls you ; go, and luck be with you ; great rewards your 
merits will attend. Why stand there?" To this replied the soldier, 
shrewd, however rustic : "Yes go he will, where you wish, general, he 
who has lost his purse." 

41 — 54. He gives a sketch of his life, till poverty drove him to write 

verses. 

It was my fortune to be bred at Rome ; there I read the tale of the 
mischief wrought to the Greeks by the wrath of Achilles. Kindly 
Athens gave me a little more learning to this end, that I might be 
minded to distinguish right from wrong, and to hunt for truth 
in Academus' groves. But the hard times tore me from that pleasant 
spot, and the tide of civil war bore me, a novice, into that host, 
which was fated to prove no match for the strength of Caesar 
Augustus. Then Philippi sent me from its field, brought low with 
clipped wings and stript of my paternal home and farm ; and so 
venturesome poverty drove me to write verses ; but now that I have 
all I can want, no doses of hemlock could ever cure me of madness, 
if I would scribble rather than sleep in peace. 

55 — 64. Then, think of my time of life, and of the diversities of taste 
in poetry, and that no one can please every one. 

The years, as they go, steal from us things one after another ; they 
have robbed me of my jokes, my loves, my feasts, my games; 
they are now striving to wrest from me my poetry. What would 



II. 2.] THE EPISTLES. lg7 

you have me do? Besides, we have not all the same tastes and 
likes. Odes are your delight, another is pleased with iambics, a 
third with satires like Bion's, and caustic raillery. I fancy I see 
three guests, who call for quite different viands as their tastes vary. 
What am I to offer? what not? You refuse what another orders : 
what you desire, the other two find distasteful, and detest. 

6$ — 86. And then, is Rome the place for a poet? Learned 
Athens or the quiet country is the home of a poet, not noisy, 
busy Rome. 

Besides, do you think I can write verses at Rome, in the midst 
of so many cares, so many labours? One calls me to be security; 
another to hear him read, to which I must postpone every duty; 
one friend is ill in bed on the Quirinal mount, another at the 
extremity of the Aventine, I must visit both ; these distances, you 
see, are charmingly convenient Oh ! but the streets are clear, so 
that there is nothing to stop thought. Not quite so ; see hurrying 
along the bustling contractor with his mules and porters ; a crane 
hoists at one moment a stone, then a weighty beam; melancholy 
funerals jostle sturdy wagons, one way runs a mad dog, another 
way a filthy sow: go to, now, and meditate musical verses. The 
whole chorus of bards loves groves, eschews cities; clients, as in 
duty bound, of Bacchus, the god who delights in sleep and shade : 
and do you mean that I am to be a poet in the midst of noise by 
night and by day, and there to follow the path of minstrelsy trodden 
by few? A genius chooses for his retreat quiet Athens, there he 
devotes seven years to study, and grows gray over his books and 
literary cares ; usually, when forth he walks, he is more mute than 
a statue, while the people shake with laughter: and here at Rome 
should I, in the midst of the billows of business, and the tempests 
of the city, attempt to compose verses worthy to wake the music of 
the lyre? 

87 — 105. Then, the absurd flattery of poets one to another may well 
make one dislike the trade of verse-wi'iting. 

There were two brothers at Rome, one a lawyer, the other a 
rhetorician; their compact was, that the one should hear unmixed 
praises of the other; one was to be a Gracchus in his brother's 
eyes, the other a Mucius in his turn. This madness possesses our 
tuneful bards quite as much. I compose lyrics, my friend writes 
elegiacs. This is our language: a O work admirable to contemplate, 
engraven by the nine Muses!" Prithee, do you see, with what 
airs, with what importance, we gaze round Apollo's temple with 
niches vacant for the Roman bards? Presently too, if you have 
time, follow, and at a convenient distance listen to what either poet 
is reciting, and why he weaves for himself a chaplet. We receive 
blows, and deal as many back on our foe, in a lazy kind of combat, 
like gladiators when the candles are first lighted. I go home a 



I9 8 HORACE. [II. 2. 

second Alcseus on the strength of his vote ; who is he in my judg- 
ment ? Why, nothing short of Callimachus ; or if that contents him 
not, he rises to Mimnermus, and waxes greater through the name 
of his own choosing. Much do I endure to appease the irritable 
race of bards, while I scribble verses myself, and as a suppliant 
canvass for the interest of the people : now that I have finished my 
poetic course, and recovered my wits, I would stop my ears, once 
open to those who read without requital. 

106 — 125. Bad poets are happy in their vanity j the real poet is 
severe upon himself. 

Ridicule attends bad poets; but then they delight in their own 
writings, and are venerable in their own eyes, and if one is silent, 
without waiting longer, they praise whatever they have written, a 
race happy in their own conceits. But he who would compose a 
poem that will fulfil the laws of his art, when he takes his tablets, will 
take also the spirit of an upright censor; he will not scruple to remove 
from their place all fine phrases lacking brilliancy, and regarded as 
wanting in dignity and as unworthy of honour, though reluctantly 
they depart, and still linger within the shrine of Vesta ; he will kindly 
for the people's use bring forth words that have long lain in obscu- 
rity, once in vogue with ancient Cato and Cethegus, but now sunk in 
shapeless oblivion and dreary age: he will adopt new names pro- 
duced by usage, the parent of language : though strong, yet clear, 
like a transparent stream, he will pour forth a wealth of words, and 
enrich Latium with the fulness of his eloquence : but what is luxuriant 
he will prune, what is rough he will refine by a sensible culture, what 
has no merit he will utterly take away: he will appear like an actor, 
and turn and twist his limbs, as one who dances now like a Satyr, 
now like a clownish Cyclops. 

. 
126 — 140. Yet the self-satisfied poet is the happiest, as may be illus- 
trated by the story of the Argive. 

But yet, better be thought a silly and dull poet, provided my own 
faults please me, or at least escape me, than to be ever so sensible, 
and to chafe in one's spirit. There lived one at Argos of no mean 
rank, who used to fancy that he was listening to admirable tragic 
actors ; he would sit happy, and applaud in the empty theatre ; yet 
meanwhile he could correctly discharge all the duties of life, an 
excellent neighbour, an amiable friend, civil to his wife; he could 
command himself so far as to forgive his servants, and was not quite 
a madman though the seal of a bottle were broken ; he could avoid 
walking against a rock or into an open well. Him his relations with 
much labour and care cured, expelling the disease and bile by doses 
of pure hellebore ; so he returns to his senses ; whereupon he says, 
"By Pollux, my friends, you have been the death of me, not my de- 
liverers, who have robbed me of my pleasure, and violently taken 
from me my soul's dearest illusion." 



II. 2.] THE EPISTLES. Igg 



141 — 157. There is a tiine for all things, a time to give up verse- 
w?iting, and to learn true wisdom, that we may free ourselves 
from avarice. 

No doubt it is good to learn wisdom and cast aside trifles, and leave 
to boys the sport that suits their age, and not to be always hunting 
after words fit to be set to the music of the Latin lyre, but to master 
the harmonies and measures of -the true life. Wherefore I hold con- 
verse with myself, and in meditation ponder such thoughts as these : 
If no draughts of water assuaged your thirst, you would tell the 
doctors ; dare you not confess to any one, that the more you have 
acquired, the more you want? If a wound got no better by the use 
of the prescribed root or herb, you would cease to have it dressed by 
that which had no efficacy. You have been told, perhaps, that riches, 
Heaven's gift, deliver their possessor from depravity and folly; 
though, since you were richer, you find yourself no wiser, you still 
persist to follow the same counsellors. But if it were true that wealth 
could give you wisdom, contentment, moral courage, then surely you 
had reason to blush, if a greater miser than you could be found in 
the whole world. 

158 — 179. But what do we mean by property? Is the word, 
property, applicable at all to such a state of things as is found in 
man's life? 

If what a man buys by the forms of legal purchase is his property, 
there are some things, if you believe the lawyers, to which use gives 
a title. The farm is yours, on the produce of which you live; and 
Orbius' bailiff, harrowing the cornfields from which you are to get 
your bread, owns you as his true lord. For money paid you receive 
raisins, chickens, eggs, your cask of wine : why, this is your way of 
purchasing bit by bit a farm bought for three hundred thousand 
sesterces, or perchance for even more. What odds does it make, 
whether you live on what you paid for lately, or a long time ago ? 
A man bought a farm at Aricia or Veii ; he buys the vegetables at his 
dinner, though he may think he does not, he buys the logs with 
which he heats his copper pot in the cold evening : yet he calls all 
his own property, up to the poplar planted at the settled boundary to 
prevent a dispute with his neighbour: just as if anything were 
property, which at the point of every passing hour, by prayer, by 
purchase, by violence, by death the end of all things, changes its 
masters, and passes to the ownership of another. Thus to none is 
granted the use in perpetuity ; and an heir comes after the heir of 
him who was heir to one before, as waves follow waves ; what then 
avail rows of houses or granaries, or what avail Lucanian mountain- 
pastures united to Calabrian, if great things and small alike are mown 
by the scythe of Death, a god not to be won by gold? 



200 HORACE. [II. 2. 

1 80 — 204. Various are the tastes a7id natures of men, as the Genius 
of each fashioiis them. Horace hopes that he may avoid extremes, 
a7id live co7itented with his lot 

Jewels, marble, ivory, Tuscan images, paintings, plate, garments 
dyed in African purple, there are who have not, here and there is one 
who does not care to have. One of two brothers prefers idling, 
playing, perfuming, to the unctuous palm-groves of Herod; another, 
rich and restless, from the dawn to the evening-shades reclaims the 
woodlands with fire and the iron plough; why so, is only known to 
the Genius-god, who, the companion of our existence, rules our natal 
star, the god of human nature, destined to die when each man dies, 
various of face, fair, or dark. I will enjoy my own, and take what 
need requires, from my moderate sum; I will not fear my heir's 
judgment of me, because he finds no more than I have bequeathed 
him : and yet I would not be ignorant how much the cheerful giver 
differs from the spendthrift, how much the frugal from the miser. 
'Tis one thing lavishly to waste, another not to grudge to spend, and 
not to strive to increase one's store ; 'tis better, like a schoolboy in the 
holidays, to snatch a fleeting enjoyment of life. Far from my home 
be a mean squalor; let my vessel be large or small, I that sail in 
it am the same : I am not borne along with swelling sails and 
prosperous gales, yet I pass not my whole life midst adverse winds ; 
in strength, genius, display, virtue, station, fortune, behind the fore- 
most, ever before the last. 

205 — 216. Many besides avarice are the faults of our nature. As 
we grow in years, may we grow in goodness, and be ready to leave 
life with a good grace. 

So then you are no miser: go your way. What then? Are you 
free of all vices together with that one? Is your soul delivered from 
vain ambition? from the fear of death? from anger? Can you laugh 
at dreams, magic terrors, prodigies, witches, nightly phantoms, Thes- 
salian portents? do you count your birthdays with a thankful mind? 
can you forgive a friend ? do you grow a milder and better man as 
old age draws near? How are you relieved by pulling out one of 
many thorns? If you know not how to live aright, give place to 
the wise. You have played and eaten and drunk your fill ; 'tis time you 
depart; lest, if you drink more deeply than is proper, you be jeered 
and driven from the feast by an age which is sprightly with a better 
grace. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE ART OF POETRY. 



LUCIUS Calpurnius PlSO, to whom, with his sons, is addressed the 
last epistle in Horace's works, had gained victories in Thrace: but 
he is much better known as the friend of Horace. He is praised 
by Velleius Paterculus, Seneca, and Tacitus, for having executed 
the duties of the unpopular office of Prefect of the city with re- 
markable industry, gentleness, and wisdom. He lived to a great 
age, outliving Horace by thirty-nine years. Horace in this epistle 
speaks of the elder of the sons as likely to write verses. The 
epistle is rightly placed next to the epistles to Augustus and Florus. 
The subject of the three epistles is in the main the same. They are 
all written upon the literature of Rome and Greece. But the third 
epistle, being more general and somewhat more systematic, received 
even in early days the ambitious title of the "Art of Poetry." It is 
so called twice by Quintilian. Priscian, Terentius Scaurus, Sym- 
machus, and others, give it the same name. This title has contributed 
at once to the reputation and to the disparagement of the epistle. 
Such an honourable name placed it almost in the same rank as 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. Horace's lively letter has been natu- 
rally far more popular than Aristotle's dry discussion, and for one 
reader of the Poetics there have doubtless been hundreds of Horace's 
work. The epistle, dignified with such a name, has had several 
imitations in modern times. On the other hand, students of it, 
misled by this title, have expected more than they have found. 
They have forgotten that it was a letter, not a treatise. We may 
well suppose that no one would have been more surprised than 
Horace himself to have heard his letter called by so great a name, 
and may well imagine what a delightful epistle he could have written, 
disclaiming the doubtful honour. Horace writes for a particular 
object, his wish being, as it seems, to deter a certain young man 
from publishing his compositions rashly; and it has been made 
almost a matter of complaint, that he is as one who seeks to dis- 
courage the aspirations of genius. Perhaps Horace had read the 
youthful attempts of the elder son; he may have found them wanting 
in originality, or rough and incorrect ; it is unreasonable to accuse 
Horace (as Scaliger, a great critic of an unamiable character, has 
done,) of dealing with the little points that concern grammar, rather 
than poetry. Horace writes as ideas occur to him, in the way in 



202 HORACE. 



which letters are usually written ; and he has been reproached with a 
want of that very order and lucid arrangement on which he himself 
sets so high a value. He ends his epistle abruptly, in a humorous 
manner, after his usual happy way, just as we say it is well to leave a 
friend with a joke at the end of a conversation ; and critics have 
spoken of the treatise as unfinished. Horace would have replied 
perhaps: "Unfinished, no doubt; but would you have me as long- 
winded as blear-eyed Crispinus? The gods forbid! I should bore 
my friends, young or old. For friends I write, not for critics." 

Now, if it be true that Horace's friends, like many other young 
men, wanted warning rather than encouragement, it is natural that 
the general style of the treatise should be practical rather than 
enthusiastic. Here we have the "Art of Poetry" rather than the 
"Science of Poetry." Here are no high-flown rhapsodies, no meta- 
physical inquiries, no philosophical analysis. Abstract questions are 
not discussed here, as to the true theory of poetry, and the like ; 
whether, for instance, Aristotle is right when he says that the aim 
of tragedy is to purify the passions by means of pity and terror, 
or whether the pleasure that tragedy gives arises "from its awaken- 
ing in us the feeling of the dignity of human nature, or from the dis- 
play of the mysteries of Providence and Fate." These questions 
to some are interesting, to others simply unintelligible. At any rate 
they have nothing to do with Horace's Art of Poetry. He had no 
taste for such vague and profound inquiries, little suited to the age 
he lived in, or to the practical turn of the Roman mind, or to the 
particular object of his epistle. Those who consider Aristotle's 
Poetics a shallow book, will be sure to think Horace's Art of Poetry 
still more shallow. Walckenaer 1 in his account of Horace's treatise 
speaks of the eleven precepts of Horace on poetry: this division 
gives an idea of regularity not to be found in this book ; and if we 
are to count precepts, we should find many more than eleven or 
twelve scattered up and down in the epistle. Horace throws together 
in a loose and lively way his pleasant pieces of advice to his friends. 
His Art of Poetry is an "art without an art ;" or, if there be art, it is 
art concealed. He is truly natural throughout. As Pope said of 
Homer, so may we say of him, "Horace and Nature are the same." 
He begins with a jest and ends with a jest. He laughs good- 
naturedly at the pretty patches of a pompous poetry. He recom- 
mends modesty and diffidence. He claims liberty for himself, and 
his illustrious friends Virgil and Varius, to invent new words and ex- 
pressions, but he does not look that these should have an immortality, 
which the most splendid material works of the Empire were not 
destined to enjoy. It is true that in the middle of the epistle the 
writer is more methodical, and speaks with an authority which he 
had earned by his success : but even here he is still unassuming, and 
mixes together various subjects ; as of metre, feet, epic poetry, tragedy, 
comedy and satiric poems, of the characteristics of the various ages 

1 Walckenaer, Vie cT Horace. Paris, 2nd edition, T858. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE ART OF POETRY. 203 

of life, of the office of the chorus, of his own humble powers, of 
Roman money-getting habits, of the carelessness of Latin writers, 
(his favourite topic,) and many other points. The turns of his style 
are easy. He never dwells long on one point. He is more of a letter- 
writer than a critic, and is a satirist rather than a teacher. Towards 
the end of the letter, he again returns to a style of light and happy 
banter, and a kindly allusion to his good friend Quintilius, whose loss 
he had bewailed in one of the most touching of his odes. Thus we 
part company with Horace in one of the happiest of his happy moods, 
and leave him using a homely simile. Who would have him other 
than he is? Whether he succeeded in restraining the eagerness of 
his young friend, we have no means of knowing ; all we know about 
the elder of Piso's sons is, that he died before his father, being assas- 
sinated when praetor of Spain. However, if anything can teach 
modesty, good-nature, and sense, it is this short book of Horace, 
call it Epistle, or Art of Poetry, or what you like. 

But this is certain, that with little apparent effort, and little trouble, 
except, no doubt, the careful correction of particular expressions, 
Horace has given us an immortal treatise. Truly has Keightley 
called it the Art of Criticism, rather than the Art of Poetry. The 
same may be said of Boileau's Art of Poetry. Pope has properly 
named his treatise an "Essay on Criticism." Walckenaer says that 
Vida's Poetics have received the praises of Scaliger, that they are 
written in a florid and elegant style, and in verses that imitate the 
Virgilian rhythm ; but that they are weak and diffuse, and violate the 
Horatian maxim, "In all your precepts remember to be brief." This 
fault of diffuseness cannot justly be found either with Boileau or 
Pope. Both these writers are clear, correct, terse, and to the point. 
They are elegant, but do not sacrifice other qualities to elegance. 
They both have a large share of the sense and judgment of the Latin 
writer. They are not without his liveliness ; at any rate, the English 
poet is not. While Horace owes little or nothing to Aristotle's 
Poetics, the two modern authors owe very much to Horace, and 
Boileau in particular is a close imitator. As Pope says of him, "He 
still in right of Horace sways." Indeed, parts of his "Art" are almost 
translations of Horace, and happy ones too, Boileau, like Horace, 
does not deny that genius is necessary for a poet, but dwells much on 
the importance of art. He is the strong advocate of common sense, 
and of the avoidance of all extremes. He is quite the writer of the 
Augustan age of France, and has a relation to Louis XIV. not 
altogether unlike that of Horace to Augustus. He has the same 
distaste for pompous pretensions in poetry. He warns poets against 
flatterers as strongly as Horace does. He also speaks of the various 
kinds of poetry, and their difference. He follows his master closely 
and happily in his description of the characteristics of the ages of 
men. For all that, curiously enough, he gives only four lines to the 
express mention of Horace, to whom he owes so much, lines too 
without any particular point in them. Voltaire, who styles the Satires 
of Boileau'the failure of his youth, speaks of his Epistles as fine, and 



2Q4 HORACE. 



of his Art of Poetry as admirable. The praise is deserved, and comes 
from one who on such a subject as the Epistles of Horace is a good 
judge, though on many other subjects, as on the Bible, Shakspeare, 
and Calderon, a very bad one. Still, though Boileau, like Horace, is 
clear, neat, sensible, correct, though to both writers may be applied 
the line : 

"SijMcris quatre mots, j'en effacerai trois," 

yet is he wonderfully inferior to the Roman poet, and leaves, at least 
on an Englishman, the impression of weariness, caused no doubt in 
part by the want of variety in his style, and by a lack of vigour and 
spirit. 

Most that may be said of Boileau's production is applicable to 
Pope's "Essay on Criticism," a treatise composed in the same style 
and manner. Pope is the writer of the Augustan age of England. In 
order and regularity and the completeness of his plan, Pope is 
superior to Horace ; some of his lines are models of neatness of 
expression ; specially, in his illustration of the manner in which the 
sound should be an echo to the sense, he has written some of the 
most perfect lines in any poetry ; he feels, and admirably expresses 
his feeling, that to make a good critic the heart should be right as 
well as the head ; and that pride, prejudice, and envy are almost as 
great a hindrance to a true judgment in literature, as dulness and 
ignorance. And yet even Pope's "Essay on Criticism," with all its 
merits, is wanting in the variety, the life, the playfulness, the graceful 
negligence, the happy ease, of the inimitable Latin author. 

Lord Byron's "Hints from Horace" is an adaptation of the "Art of 
Poetry" in the manner of Pope ; or, as he himself curiously expresses 
it, "An allusion in English verse to the Epistle Ad Pisones de Arte 
Poetica." The work is a complete failure, though written by a great 
poet ; it is for the most part commonplace and dull ; it wants the ease 
and delicacy of Horace, Pope's epigrammatic felicity of phrase and 
command of antithesis, and the concise and studied carefulness of 
workmanship common to both the earlier poets. For the poetical 
genius of Byron, though more powerful and splendid than that 
of Horace or Pope, is yet deficient in their peculiar excellencies : and 
perhaps the consciousness of this deficiency was in a great measure 
the cause of that extravagant admiration of Pope which Byron felt 
throughout his life. It is remarkable that Byron himself preferred 
the "Hints from Horace" to the first two cantos of "Childe Harold," 
which he had w T ritten about the same time; and after an interval 
of nine years, during which he had written most of those works 
which have given him his fame, he says, alluding to these "Hints," 
"I wrote better then than now." This preference for their inferior 
writings has been not uncommon with poets : so Milton preferred 
his "Paradise Regained" to "Paradise Lost," and Petrarch his Latin 
Poems to his Sonnets. Notwithstanding his veneration of Pope, 
Byron seems to have had little sympathy with Horace, any more 
than with Virgil. In the latter poet he can only see "that harmonious 
plagiary and miserable flatterer;" and of the former he speaks as 



INTRODUCTION TO THE ART OF POETRY. 



205 



"Horace, whom I hated so;" and he goes on to speak of "the curse" 
that it is, 

"To comprehend, but never love thy verse." 

Yet in the same passage he well describes the characteristic of 
Horace's style of satire, (in words somewhat similar to those of 
Persius,) as 

"Awakening without wounding the touched heart." 

Horace was a Greek scholar, an admirer of Greek literature, and 
yet we cannot account him as one able to enter into the spirit of such 
writers as ^schylus or Sophocles. His rules about poetry are not 
applicable to all classical, still less are they prospectively to modern, 
poetry, except to a certain part of it. 

"The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven." 

With such a poet as that, Horace's criticisms have no relation. And 
even the artificial style of poetry owes but little to criticism. Racine 
would not learn much from the sensible advice of Boileau. Genius 
inspires the poet, not merely with noble thoughts, but with untaught 
shapes, the forms in which suitably to clothe these thoughts. The good 
that criticism can do is negative rather than positive. It is something 
to deter those who have no genius for writing poetry from trying to 
be poets, and to warn such that heaven and earth and booksellers 
alike condemn mediocrity in poetry. And if good poets are rare, 
so are good critics. Compositions such as those of Boileau and 
Pope, in which sense, wit, terseness of expression are found, give 
pleasure. And Horace's "Art of Poetry" is full of information on 
subjects long past, is not unworthy of the author of the Satires and 
Epistles, is full of kindly wit and lively wisdom, and has furnished 
succeeding ages with many a quotation applied to subjects quite 
different from that on which the line was originally written. 



THE ART OF POETRY. 



I — 23. Unity and simplicity are necessary in a poem. 

If a painter were to try to unite to a man's head a horse's neck, or 
to put party-coloured feathers on limbs collected from every kind of 
animal, so that, for instance, a woman fair to the waist were to end 
foul in the tail of an ugly fish ; if admitted to view, my friends, could 
you restrain your laughter? Believe me, my dear Pisos, that just like 
a monstrous picture of that kind would be a poem, whose images are 
formed as unreal as the dreams of a sick man, in such a manner as 
that neither foot nor head can be assigned to one uniform shape. 
You will say perhaps: "Painters and poets have ever had a reason- 
able liberty to venture as their fancy bids." 'Tis true, I know, and I 
grant and claim in return this license ; yet not to such excess, as that 
wild creatures may be mated with tame, and serpents coupled with 
birds, tigers with lambs. It is the fashion now-a-days to stitch to 
pompous openings of great professions one or two fine patches of 
brilliant colour to glitter far and wide, with a description of the grove 
and altar of Diana, or maze of hurrying stream through pleasant fields, 
or river Rhine, or rainbow ; but it turns out this was not the place for 
such scenes. And perhaps, sir painter, you can paint a cypress well ; 
but what is the good of that, if you are paid to paint a mariner swim- 
ming to the shore from his shipwrecked vessel, a ruined man? A 
wine-jar was to be produced ; why from the potter's circling wheel 
comes forth a pitcher? In short, be your composition what it may, at 
least let it be simple and uniform. 

24 — 37. We, who would be poets, must guard against all extremes. 

Most of us poets (I write to a father and sons worthy of their father) 
mislead ourselves by the appearance of truth. Thus, I strive to be 
brief, I become obscure ; one poet aims at smoothness, and is wanting 
in vigour and spirit; another lays claim to grandeur, and is bom- 
bastic ; along the ground crawls he who would guard himself too 
much, as dreading the gusty storm ; he who would diversify with 
monstrous prodigies a subject that is really one, is as he who would 
paint a porpoise in the woods, a wild boar amidst the waves : thus an 
unskilful avoidance of faults leads into error. Near the school of 



_ ! 

THE ART OF POETRY. 207 

iEmilius is an ordinary artist, who in bronze can represent nails and 
imitate flowing locks, but who fails in the entire statue, being unable 
to execute the whole figure. Now, if I cared to compose any work, I 
would no more wish to be such an artist as this, than I would choose 
to live admired for my black eyes and black hair, but disfigured by a 
crooked nose. 

38 — 44. We must well consider our powers befoi'e we write. 

Ye authors, choose a subject suited to your abilities, and long 
ponder what your strength is equal to, what it is too weak to sup- 
port. He who chooses a theme according to his powers, will find nei- 
ther command of language nor lucid arrangement fail him. And 
herein lies, unless I deceive myself, the power and beauty of arrange- 
ment ; if a writer says at once only what ought to be said at once, 
reserving most points, and omitting them for the present. 

45 — 72. We may coin new words, when necessary, but this must be 
done with care: words, like all other things, are subject to change. 

In the arrangement of his words, too, let the author of the long- 
promised poem shew delicate taste, and care, preferring one word, 
rejecting another. You will express yourself excellently well, if by a 
curious combination you make a familiar word seem original. Should 
it happen to be necessary to indicate by new terms things before un- 
known, you may invent expressions not so much as heard of by the 
old fashioned Cethegi, and license will be granted, if not abused ; and 
words, though new and lately invented, will gain credit, if derived from 
the Greek, and a little altered in form. What! shall the Roman 
public grant Caecilius and Plautus a liberty, which they deny to Virgil 
and Varius ? I myself too, if I have been able to contribute a few new 
words, should not be grudged this liberty, since the writings of Cato 
and Ennius have enriched their mother tongue, and coined new names 
for things. 'Tis a license that has been granted, and ever will be, to 
put forth a new word stamped with the current die. At each year's 
fall the forests change their leaves, those green in spring then fall ; 
even so the old race of words passes away, while new-born words, 
like youths, flourish in vigorous life. We must pay the debt of death, 
we and all our works ; whether Neptune be received into the land, 
and our fleets are defended from the northern gales, a right royal 
work; or the marsh, long time unfruitful and fit only for boats, now 
finds food for the neighbouring towns, and feels the weight of the 
plough ; or the river has changed its course destructive to the 
crops, and has been taught to flow iri a better channel ; yes, all 
the works of mortal men shall perish; much less can the fashion 
and favour of words remain longlived. Many names now in disuse 
shall again appear, many now in good repute shall be forgotten, if 
custom wills it so; custom, the lord and arbiter and rightful legislator 
of language. 



2 o8 HORACE. 



73 — 85. The various kinds of poetry, epic, elegiac, dramatic, lyric. 

The measure suited to the exploits of princes and captains, and to 
the sorrows of war, Homer has shown us. Verses joined in unequal 
pairs contained first complainings, then the thoughts of successful 
vows : but who was the inventor of these elegiacs with their shorter 
measure, grammarians still dispute, and undecided is the question. 
Rage armed Archilochus with his own iambic metre ; the comic sock 
and high majestic buskin chose this foot, as suited for dialogue, and 
able to overcome the din of the assembled people, and the natural 
one for the action of the stage. But to the lyre the Muse granted to 
sing of gods and children of gods, and victorious boxers, and horses 
that win in the race, and sorrows of enamoured swains, and cups that 
free the soul. 

86 — 98. We must suit our style to the different kinds of poetry. 

Settled are the various forms and shades of style in poetry : if I 
lack the ability and knowledge to maintain these, how can I have the 
honoured name of poet? Or why, through false shame do I prefer 
ignorance to being taught? A comic subject refuses to be set forth in 
tragic verse: so too the tale of the Thyestean banquet scorns to be 
told in lines suited to some ordinary theme, and unworthy of more 
than the common sock. Let each style keep its appointed place with 
propriety. And yet at times, too, Comedy will raise her voice, and 
angry Chremes storms in swelling tones ; so the Telephus and Peleus 
of tragedy often express their sorrows in language akin to prose, and 
either hero, in poverty and exile, will cast aside bombast and words a 
cubit long, if he cares at all to touch the heart of the spectator by his 
piteous tale. 

99 — 118. The words also must be suitable to the character in whose 
mouth the poet puts the?n. 

For poems to have beauty of style is not enough ; they must have 
pathos also, and lead, where'er they will, the hearer's soul. As 
human countenances answer with laughter to those that laugh, so do 
they express sympathy with those that weep ; if you would have me 
weep, you must yourself first grieve ; thus alone shall I be touched by 
your misfortunes, Telephus or Peleus ; if you deliver words ill suited 
to your character, I shall either fall asleep, or laugh. Sad words be- 
come a face of sorrow ; to angry countenances are suited threats ; while 
jests set off a playful look ; serious words become a grave brow. For 
nature shapes our inner feelings to each state of our fortunes ; she 
makes us joyous, or drives us to anger ; or to the earth by weight of 
woe depresses our tortured hearts : then she expresses our passions 
by the tongue, the soul's interpreter. So, if the words of the speaker 
are discordant with his fortunes, loud will be the laughter raised by the 
Roman spectators, knights and rank and file alike. It will make no little 



THE ART OF POETRY, 209 

difference, whether a god is the speaker, or a hero, a man of mature 
age, or one still in the flower and fervour of youth, matron of high 
rank, or bustling nurse, a roaming merchant, or a tiller of a fruitful 
farm, Colchian or Assyrian, one reared at Thebes or at Argos. 

119 — 152. A writer should follow the traditions of the Muse; or, if 
he strikes out something new, must be consistent. No better guide 
can we follow than Homer, 

Either follow tradition, or, if you invent, let your creation be 
consistent. If you once more introduce on the stage illustrious 
Achilles, he must appear as one restless, passionate, inexorable, 
keen of soul ; he must say law was not made for the like of him, 
appealing to the sword alone. Again, let Medea be haughty, 
untamed of soul, but Ino bathed in tears, Ixion perjured, Io a 
wanderer, Orestes melancholy mad. If you trust to the stage an 
untried subject, and ve'nture on the creation of an original character, 
it must be kept to the end of the play such as it was when it was 
brought on at the beginning, and consistent. Hardly will you give 
to what is general an individuality; you will be more likely to 
succeed by dividing the subject of the Iliad into the acts of a play, 
than if in an original poem you bring forward a theme unknown, as 
yet unsung. A subject open to all will become your own private 
property, by your not lingering in the trite and obvious circle of 
events ; neither must you care to render word for word, as a literal 
translator; nor, as a mere copyist, throw yourself into a cramped 
space, whence either shame or the rules of the piece forbid your 
moving a step. Begin not, as did the cyclic writer of old: "Of 
Priam's fate and far-famed war I'll sing." What will this braggart 
produce worthy of so bombastic a boast? Mountains are in labour ; 
to the birth comes a most absurd mouse. Far more truly acted he, 
who makes no ill-timed effort: "Sing, Muse, to me the hero, who, 
after the days of the capture of Troy, visited many towns, saw many 
customs." Smoke he never means to bring from a bright bjaze, but 
out of smoke gives us light, that after that he may show us 
picturesque marvels, such as Antiphates and Scylla, Cyclops and 
Charybdis ; nor does he set forth the return of Diomede from the 
death of Meleager, or the Trojan war from the twin eggs ; ever to 
the end he hastens, and hurries the reader into the middle of events, 
assuming them as known ; what he despairs of so handling as to 
make it brilliant, that he drops, and so invents, so with fictions 
weaves the truth, that the middle harmonises with the opening, and 
the end with the middle. 

153 — 178. A writer too should observe the characteristics of each age 

of man. 

Now hear, what I, aye, and the people too, expect. If you want 
your auditor to applaud you and stay for the curtain, and to be sui e 
to keep his seat till the actor chants the words "Please, sirs, to 

HOR. 14 



2io HORACE. 



applaud," carefully must you observe the characteristics of each age, 
and assign to each the proprieties of shifting dispositions and 
changing years. First comes the boy, who just knows how to form 
words, and with steadier foot to walk ; he delights to play with his 
mates, and on slight cause flies into passion, quickly is appeased 
and changes every hour. Next the beardless youth, at last free 
from his guardian, rejoices in horses and hounds, and the grass o 
the sunny plain of Mars ; easily moulded, like wax, to vice, to those 
who would admonish hirn rough, slow to provide what is useful, 
lavish of his money, high-spirited, passionate in his desires, quick to 
relinquish his fancies. Then comes a change in a man's spirit, for 
the temper of middle life seeks wealth, and interest, is the slave of 
ambition, is careful lest it do that in a hurry, which afterwards i 
must labour to amend. Last of all, many are the discomforts thai 
gather around old age ; either because an old man amasses, an 
then with miserly soul spares and fears to use his stores ; or becausi 
he performs every act with timorous and chilled spirit, is a procrasti- 
nator, a laggard in hope, sluggish, yet greedy of a longer life, 
crabbed, querulous, ever praising the bygone days of his boyhood, 
but the corrector and censor of the young. Many blessings does the 
flowing tide of years bring with it, many does its ebb take from us. 
Now, lest perchance we attribute an old man's parts to a youth, or a 
man's to a boy, never must we wander beyond the limits of what suits 
and is akin to each age. 

179 — 188. Some things should be represented on the stage, others 
related to the spectators. 



, 



Events are either acted on the stage, or reported as done off i 
Now, less keenly are our spirits stirred by what drops into the ears, 
than by what is placed before the trustworthy eyes, when the spectator 
sees for himself. And yet there are things which should be done 
behind the scenes, bring not these forward ; and much should you 
withdraw from the eyes, presently to be described by an actor's 
ready speech before the audience ; so that, for instance, Medea 
should not murder her children in front of the spectators, nor impious 
Atreus cook on the stage human flesh, nor Progne be transformed 
into a bird, Cadmus into a snake. Scenes put before me in this way 
move only my incredulity and disgust. 

■ 

189 — 201. Certain rules not to he transgressed. The office of the 

Chorus. 

Let not a play be either shorter or longer than five acts ; or it will 
hardly be called for and again represented on the stage. Nor let a god 
intermeddle, unless a difficulty arise worthy of miraculous interposi- 
tion ; nor let a fourth character attempt to speak. Let the Chorus 
maintain the parts and duties of a single actor ; nor let it sing any 
song between the acts, save what advances and fitly belongs to the 
plot of the piece. Let the Chorus support the good, and give them 



THE ART OF POETR Y. 2 1 1 



friendly counsel, and restrain the angry, and love those that fear to 
sin ; let it praise the fare of a humble board, and admire justice 
which is a health to a state, and laws and gates that stand open in 
peace ; let it keep secrets, and offer prayers and supplications to 
the gods, that fortune may revisit the wretched, depart from the 
proud. 

202 — 219. Of the music of the stage, and how it changes with the 
fortunes and manners of the people. 

The flute in the days of old was not, as now, bound with yellow 
copper ore, nor did it rival the trumpet in power, but was slight and 
simple with few holes, good to accompany and aid the Chorus, and 
to fill with its breath benches not yet crowded, whither would flock 
spectators easily numbered, for they were but few, an industrious, 
pious, modest people. But when conquests enlarged the territory, 
and a greater circle of wall embraced the city, and banquets began 
early, and on holidays each man freely propitiated his genius, then to 
the rhythms and music was given greater license. For taste could 
not be looked for from the unlettered rustic, when in the theatre he 
sat freed from his labours, crowded with the man of the city, the 
rough and the polite together. Thus to the art of the days of old the 
flute-player added the dance, and elaborate music, and drew across 
the stage his robe's long train. Then to the lyre once severe were 
added new strings, then an impetuous flow of language produced an 
eloquence as yet unheard, while saws of wisdom keen to discern 
what was useful, and prophetic of the future, rivalled the utterance 
of oracular Delphi. 

220 — 250. The Satyric drama, which accompanied the tragedy , is 
not the same as comedy r , and has its rules and wholesome, re- 
straints. 

He who in tragic verse contended for the prize of a common goa* - , 
presently introduced on the stage the half-naked forms of the wild 
Satyrs ; he did not lower the dignity of the Muse, and yet he ventured 
on rough jokes ; for he felt that the allurements and pleasures of 
novelty would alone keep in their seats spectators, who had just 
assisted at the sacrifice, well drunken, lawless in spirit. And yet it 
will be right to introduce these mocking and witty Satyrs, and to pass 
from grave to gay, only in such a way as that any god or hero, just 
before conspicuous in regal gold and purple, now joining this com- 
pany, may not be as one shifting from a palace into low taverns, there 
to use vulgar language; nor yet as one, who, avoiding what is low, 
affects cloudy bombast. Insult not the tragic Muse by making her 
babble out silly verses ; if she appears amidst the wanton Satyrs, let 
her be somewhat reserved, as matron bid to dance on holidays. Were 
I a writer of satyric pieces, I would not choose bald and common 
terms, nor would I, my friends, so far depart from the tragic style, as 
though it made no difference, whether Davus was the speaker and 

14—2 



2i2 HORACE. 



impudent Pythias who got a talent by gulling Simon, or Silenus, 
guardian and attendant of a divine pupil. My play should be com- 
posed throughout in familiar terms, so that anybody may hope to do 
the same, may labour and toil much, attempting the same, and fail ; 
such is the power of sequence and arrangement, so great the beauty 
that can crown the commonest expressions. When the Fauns are 
fetched from the woods, my judgment is that they need to be careful, 
lest they appear like those born where the streets meet, and almost as 
loungers in the forum, and their verses sound as the words of our 
effeminate young men, or lest they talk in coarse and disreputable 
language : for thus are disgusted the knights, the free-born, the rich, 
who will not endure the play with patience or reward the poet, how- 
ever much the buyers of roasted chick-peas and walnuts^ may ap- 
prove, 

251 — 274. On the Iambic and Spondee. The Greek taste is to be 
followed, rather than the license of the Roman poets, in respect of 
metre. 

When a long syllable follows a short one, the foot is called an 
Iambic, a rapid foot; whence it would have the name of trimeters 
appropriated to the iambic measure, though six were the times it 
beat, from the first to the last being the same throughout. But not so 
very long ago, that slower and more solemnly the verse might fall on 
the ear, the Iambic admitted the steady Spondee into a part of its 
inheritance, with obliging good nature, so as to share the room, and 
not to yield from the second and fourth place. In the much vaunted 
trimeters of Accius, this Iambic appears but seldom, and as to those 
verses of Ennius, which he sent upon the stage like missiles of pon- 
derous weight, the Iambic lays on them the discreditable charge of 
hasty and careless composition, or of ignorance of the poetic art. It 
is not every one that can judge and see when verses are unmusical, 
and our Roman writers have an allowance made for them, unworthy 
of poets. Shall I then write loosely and carelessly, or shall I suppose 
that all will see my faults, and so shall I feel secure and be cautious 
within the limits of pardon? If so, at the best I have but escaped 
censure, praise I do not deserve. But do you, my friends, study dili- 
gently nigh.t and day the Greek models. You will answer, perhaps, 
your forefathers praised both the rhythm and wit of Plautus ; their 
praise, I say, was given too easily, not to say foolishly, to both the one 
and the other ; at least, if you and I can see the difference between 
rough humour and polished wit, and know how to beat with the 
thumb, and with the ear to catch the proper rhythm. 

275 — 294. The origin of tragedy. Its dev elopement. To it succeeded 
the old comedy, vigorous, but scurrilous. The Latin poets deserve 
so?ne praise, but their great fault is their careless, slovenly style. 

Unknown was the style of the tragic Muse, till Thespis, as is said, 
introduced it ; he carried his poems in travelling wagons, to be chanted 
by actors whose faces were smeared with lees of wine. After him 



THE ART OF POETRY. 2I3 



came ^Eschylus, the inventor of the tragic robe and comely mask, who 
made a stage with planks of moderate size, and taught the actors 
magnificent diction and stately gait on the buskin. Then succeeded 
the old comedy, which had no little merit ; but its liberty degenerated 
into licence, and into a violence, which the law must check ; the law 
was submitted to, and then the chorus to its shame became dumb, 
being deprived of the right of abuse. No style have our poets left 
untried, nor slight the glory they have earned, when they ventured 
beyond the Grecian track, and dared to sing of our national exploits, 
putting on the stage either tragedies or comedies on Roman subjects. 
Nor would the Latin name be more famed for deeds of valour and for 
arms, than for literature, were not the toil and trouble of correction a 
stumblingblock to every one of our bards. But do you, in whose 
veins is the blood of Numa, censure every poem, which many a day 
and many an erasure has not chastened, and by repeated improve- 
ments has amended to the finishing touch. 

295 — 308. Genius cannot afford to dispense with the rules of art. 
The critic has his place in literature. 

That genius is happier than poor wretched art is the creed of 
Democritus, who excludes from Helicon all poets in their senses ; 
therefore a large proportion of would-be-poets care not to pare their 
nails or shave their beard, haunt retired spots, eschew public baths. 
He, think they, will get himself the estimation and name of a poet, 
who never trusts to the barber Licinus that precious pate incurable 
by the hellebore of three Anticyras. Ah, what a wrong-headed fellow 
am 1 ! I get my bile purged from me, as spring draws on ; otherwise, 
there is not a living wight who would write better verses : however, 
after all it does not matter so much. For now will I discharge the 
office of a whetstone,, which, though it cannot cut, makes iron sharp. 
No poet I, but yet I will teach the poet's duty and office, whence he 
draws his treasures, what trains and fashions the bard ; what graces 
him, what not ; which are the paths of excellence, and which of error. 

309 — 322. Knowledge is the foundation of good writing. Poefry 
without sense is but a harmonious trifling. 

Of good writing the foundation and source is moral wisdom. Now 
the Socratic dialogues will supply you with matter, and words will 
follow readily, when matter is provided. The writer who has learnt 
what our country expects of us, what our friends look for, the love we 
owe to parents, to a brother, to a guest, the duties of a senator and a 
judge, the parts of a general sent to command in war, he, I feel sure, 
knows how at once to give to each character his proper speech. I 
would advise a well-instructed imitator to have an eye to the model 
which life and manners give, and hence to draw the language of 
reality. Sometimes a play embellished with moral sentiments, and 
rightly representing manners, though lacking grace and force and art, 
delights the people more, and interests them to the end of the piece, 
rather than verses void of sense, and prettily-sounding trifles. 



2i4 HORACE. 



3 2 3 — 333* The Greeks had genius ; the Romans are a 7noney-geiting 

race. 

The Greeks had genius, the Greeks could speak with well-rounded 
'mouth: this was the Muse's gift to them; they coveted nought but 
renown. But the Roman boys are taught to divide the as by long 
calculations into a hundred parts. Supposing the son of Albinus 
says : " If from five ounces be subtracted one, what is the remainder? " 
At once you can answer, "A third of an as." "Good, you will be 
able to keep your property. If an ounce be added, what does it 
make?" "The half of an as." Ah! when this rust of copper, this 
slavish love of saving money has once imbued the soul, can we hope 
for the composition of verses worthy to be rubbed with the oil of 
.cedar, or to be kept in cases of polished cypress ? 

334 — 34-6* The object of the poet should be to give instruction and 

delight. 

Poets aim either to benefit, or to delight, or to unite what will give 
pleasure with what is serviceable for life. In moral precepts be brief; 
what is quickly said, the mind readily receives and faithfully retains: 
all that is superfluous runs over from the mind, as from a full vessel. 
Fictions meant to please should be as like truth as possible ; the play 
ought not to demand unlimited belief; after the dinner of an ogress, 
let no live boy be taken from her stomach. The centuries of the 
senators drive from the stage poems devoid of moral lessons ; the 
aristocratic knights disapprove of dry poems ; that poet gets every 
vote, who unites information with pleasure, delighting at once and 
instructing the reader. Such a poem brings money to the publishers, 
and is sent across the sea, and gives immortality to its illustrious 
author. 

347 — 360. Perfection in a poem we do not expect, but we do expect 

care and pains. 

Yet faults there are, that we can gladly pardon ; for a chord does 
not always return the sound which the hand and mind intend, and, 
when we expect the flat, very often gives us a sharp ; and arrows 
often miss the threatened mark. But the truth is, where most in 
a poem is brilliant, I would not be offended at a few blots, which 
inattention has carelessly let drop, or the infirmity of human nature 
failed to guard against. What then is the truth? If a copyist, often 
warned, ever makes the same mistake, he is inexcusable ; if a harper 
is always at fault on the same string, he is derided ; so, a very 
heedless writer is to my mind a second Chcerilus, whose rare ex- 
cellencies surprise me, while still 1 laugh ; whilst I, the same man, 
am indignant, if good old Homer sometimes nods. However, it is 
allowable, if in a long work sleep steals over a writer. 



THE ART OF POETRY. 2 iK 



361—365. A short comparison between poetry and painting. 

As painting, so is poetry ; some takes your fancy more, the nearer 
you stand, some, if you go to a little distance ; one poem courts 
obscurity, another is willing to be seen in a strong light, and dreads 
not the keen judgment of the critic ; one poem pleases but once, 
another, called for many a time, yet still will please. 

366 — 390. All men, nearly, would he poets j but mediocrity in poetry 
is insufferable; wherefore be careful before you publish. 

O elder youth, both by your father's teaching are you trained to 
what is correct, and naturally you have good judgment; yet what 
I also say, do you make your own, and remember that in certain 
subjects mediocrity is allowable, and a tolerable success ; for instance, 
a chamber-counsel and a pleader of fair ability falls short of the 
excellence of eloquent Messala, and yields in knowledge to Cascellius 
Aulus, and yet he is valued ; but mediocrity in poets is condemned 
by gods and men, aye, and booksellers too. As during pleasant 
banquets discordant music and perfumed oil coarse in quality and 
poppy mixed with bitter honey are offensive, for the dinner might 
have dispensed with these accompaniments : so poetry, the end and 
nature of which is to delight the soul, if it fall somewhat short of 
excellence, inclines to what is faulty. One ignorant of a game stands 
aloof from the contest in the Campus, and, if unskilled in ball or 
quoit or hoop, remains an inactive spectator, lest the crowded ring 
raise an unreproved laughter : but he who is no versifier, yet dares to 
try to make verses. Prithee, why should he not? Is he not free, nay, 
free-born, above all, is he not rated as possessed of equestrian fortune, 
and is he not clear from all moral censure? But you, my friend, will 
say and do nothing against the bent of your genius, such is your 
judgment, such your sense ; however, if at some future time you write 
something, let it first be read before Msecius as critic, before your 
father and me, and let it be kept back for nine years on the parch- 
ments in your desk ; you can destroy what you have never published ; 
a word once uttered you cannot recall. 

39 t — 407. The origin and office of poetry in early days. 

Once in the woods men lived ; then holy Orpheus, heaven's inter- 
preter, turned them from slaughter and their foul manner of life ; 
hence he was said to have soothed tigers and ravening lions ; hence 
too it was said that Amphion, founder of the Theban citadel, moved 
rocks to the strains of his lyre, and led them by alluring persuasion, 
whithersoever he listed. In days of yore it was wisdom's office to 
set the marks between public and private property, between things 
sacred and profane, to restrain men from vague concubinage, to 
appoint rights for man and wife, to build cities, to engrave laws 
on tablets of wood: thus came honour and renown to prophetic 
bards and their poems. Afterwards, glorious Homer and Tyrtaeus 
roused manly hearts to martial wars by their songs ; oracles were 



2i6 HORACE. 

. . __ 

delivered in verse, and the path of life pointed out, and the favour 
of princes sought by the strains of the Muses, and the drama 
invented, to come at the end of the long toils of the year; so that 
you, my friend, may see you have no reason to be ashamed of 
the Muse skilled in the lyre, and Apollo who chants to its melody. 

408 — 418. Genius is necessary for a ftoet, and yet \ without art and 
study , genius will fail. 

Whether by genius or by art an excellent poem is produced, has 
often been the question : but I do not see what can be done by study 
without a rich vein of intellect, nor by genius when uncultivated: 
so true is it that either requires the help of either, and that the 
two combine in friendly union. He who passionately desires to 
reach in the race the goal, must first endure and do much as 
a boy, suffer from toil and cold, abstain from love and wine; he 
who at the Pythian games sings to the flute, has first been to 
school and feared a master. Nor is it enough to say, "I compose 
wondrous poems ; murrain take the hindmost ! I think it a shame to 
be left behind, and to confess that I am utterly ignorant of that which 
I never learnt." 

419 — 452. Let poets avoid flatterers. Quintilius was an honest 
friend, whose mission it was to tell an author unpleasant truths. 
As an auctioneer collects crowds to buy wares, so a poet, if rich 
in lands and money put out at interest, bids flatterers flock to the 
call of gain. But if he be one who can give a handsome dinner, and 
be bail for a poor man whose credit is gone, or if he can deliver one 
who is embarrassed by ugly lawsuits, then I shall be surprised, if the 
fond happy soul is clever enough to distinguish between a false and 
true friend. You, if you have made or intend to make a present to 
any one, do not bring the man full of grateful joy to hear your 
verses: for he will cry, "Beautiful! good! correct!' 7 he will turn pale 
with wonder over them, he will even drop dewy tears from his 
loving eyes, he will jump as with delight, he will strike the ground 
with his foot. As hired mourners at a funeral in words and actions 
outdo those whose grief is sincere; so does the man who laughs 
behind your back seem more moved than a real admirer. Patrons 
are said to press hard with many a cup, and test with wine the man 
whom they desire thoroughly to try, whether he be worthy of their 
friendship ; so, if you compose poems, be not unaware of the feeling 
concealed under the exterior, like that of the fox in the fable. If 
one read a passage to Quintilius, he would say, "Friend, correct this 
or that. 7 ' If one said he could not improve it after two or three 
trials, then he would bid him erase it, and return the ill-formed 
verses to the anvil of correction. But if one preferred the defence 
of a fault to the amending of it, he wasted not a single word more, 
nor threw away his pains to prevent a man from having the fondest 
love of himself and his own writings, without any rival admirer. 
A good and sensible man will censure spiritless lines, blame harsh 



THE ART OF POETRY. 217 



ones, put a smearing mark with the back of his pen to inelegant 
verses, will prune ambitious ornaments, force you to make plain your 
obscurities, will blame an equivocal phrase, and note what should be 
altered ; so will he shew himself a second Aristarchus, and never say, 
"Why offend a friend for trifles ?" seeing that these trifles bring 
serious trouble on the poet, hooted off the stage once for all after an 
unlucky reception. 

453 — 476. A poet goes as mad as Empedocles; let all beware of 
him, and keep out of the way of one who will not be helped. 

Like one troubled with the evil scab, or jaundice, or frantic 
madness and Diana's wrath, even so the insane poet all men in their 
senses fly from, and fear even to touch; the boys hoot at him 
and heedlessly follow. He with his eyes in the sky belches 
forth verses, and strays about ; then, like a bird-catcher intent 
on blackbirds, falls into a well or pit; he may cry from afar, "Ho, 
citizens, come to the help!" but not a soul cares to pull him out. 
If any one does trouble himself to bring aid, and to let down a rope, 
how can you tell, I say, whether he did not purposely throw himself 
in, and wishes not to be saved? So I'll tell you the tale of Sicilian 
Empedocles, how, wishing to be deemed an immortal god, he leapt in 
cold blood into burning Etna. Let poets have the right and liberty 
to perish, if they so please. He who saves a man against his will 
does the same as if he killed him. The poet has so acted more than 
once, and if now pulled out, will not for the future become a 
reasonable man, or lay aside the desire for notorious death. Nor 
is there any good cause to be shown, why he will always be making 
verses ; whether he has defiled his father's grave, or impiously dis- 
turbed some ill-omened accursed plot ; anyhow, he is raving mad, and 
like a bear, who has managed to break the opposing bars of a cage, 
so he puts to flight the lettered and unlettered alike, by his reading 
that bores to the death ; but if he catches any one, him he holds fast, 
and kills by his recitation, like a leech, that will not leave the skin, 
till it is gorged with blood. 



[The references are to the lines of the original.'] 

NOTES. 



ODES. 



BOOK I. 
I. 

i, 'Maecenas.' C. Cilnius Maecenas pro- 
fessed to be descended from the Cilnii, who 
were Lucumos of Etruria. Comp. in. 29, 1. 
'Atavus' is literally a great-great-great-grand- 
father. Comp. also Sat. 1. 6, 1. 

2. 'You that are.' Comp. Virgil, Georg. n. 
40. 

4. 'to gather,' 'collegisse.' It seems best 
to explain this perf. inf. as being used in an 
aoristic sense, to express the habit, 'to gather' 
appears simply to mean 'to raise a cloud of 
dust.' 'The goal' is the pillar at the end of 
the double course, which had to be rounded by 
the racing chariots. 

7. ' citizens,' lit. ' Quirites,' the name applied 
to the Romans in their civil capacity. It is 
"curious that the probable der. ' Quiris,' should 
mean 'a spearman :' in early times all the citi- 
zens served the state as soldiers. 

8. 'threefold honours.' Curule sedile, prae- 
tor, consul ; this was the regular sequence of 
the 'curule honours.' 

12. 'an Attains.' The name of several kings 
of Pergamus, famous for their wealth and pa- 
tronage of art. Attalus III. bequeathed his 
possessions to the Romtn people. (B.C. 133) 

14. ' Myrtoan main.' That part of the 
^Egean sea south of Myrtos, an island off the 
south coast of Eubcea. This epithet, as well 
as that of ' Cyprian,' seems to be merely orna- 
mental. So too ' Icarian waves,' i. e. the sea 
between the islands of Samos and Icaria. 

15. 'African blasts.' The W. S. W. wind 
(sirocco). It was thus named, because it blows 
upon Italy from the coast of Africa. It is still 
called TAfrrico' by the Italians. 

tq. ' Massic* This wine was from the 
slopes of Mons Massicus, between Campania 
and Latium. It ranked 3rd or 4th among the 
choicest wines of Italy. 

20. 'heart of the day,' lit. 'solid day;' i. e. 
while the whole or most of it is still to come. 
Comp. 'integro die,' iv. 38. 

25. 'cold sky,' lit. 'Jupiter;' the name of 
the God of the sky being put, as it often is, for 
the sky itself. Comp. 'sub divo,' 11. 3, 23. 

28. 'Marsian boar.' The country of the 
Marsi (N. E. of Latium) abounded in thick- 
ets and forests. 

29. ' ivy- leaf ; ' sacred to Bacchus the inspirer 



of lyric poetry, 'learned brows.' Comp. Spen- 
ser, Faerie Qneene, Canto 1. Stanza 9 ; 'poets 
sage.' So Gr. ao<l>oL. Pind. 01. 1. 15. 

33. The Scholiast (on Hesiod's Tlieogony, 
77) says that Euterpe invented the flute. 
Polyhymnia was said to have invented the 
lyre. 

34. 'Lesbian lyre ;' i.e. the lyric poetry of 
Lesbos, especially that of Alcaeus and Sappho. 

II. 

6. 'Pyrrha.' The daughter of Fpimetheus 
and Pandora, and the wife of Deucalion. 

7. 'Proteus.' The Old Man of the sea. 
Vid. Virg. Georg. iv. 395. 

14. 'Tuscan shore;' i. e. from the Etruscan 
or Tyrrhenian sea at the mouth of the Tiber. 
Orelli says that the Romans still think the 
floods of the Tiber are caused by the force of 
the sea driving back the water from the mouth 
of the river. 

15. 'monuments of the king.' The so- 
called palace of Numa and temple of Vesta at 
the foot of the Palatine. 

17. 'Ilia' 'Rea Silvia) was the mother of 
Romulus. She was said to have been drowned 
in the Anio, a tributary of the Tiber ; so Horace 
here represents her as the river's wife. Ovid, 
iAmores in. 6, 45) mentions her as the wife of 
the Anio. Ilia ' complains' of the assassination 
of Caesar, and of the civil wars. Jupiter of the 
Capitol was the guardian god of Rome. 

22. 'Parthians,' lit. 'Persians.' They are 
often called Persians, or Medes, by Horace, 
as occupying the ancient kingdom of Persia. 

32. 'Diviner,' lit. Augur, i. e. 'Seer.' Comp. 
German 'auge,' 'eye.' 

33. 'Erycina,' Venus, so named from her 
famous temple on mount Eryx in Sicily. 

36. 'our Founder,' Mars. The 'show' in 
the next line seems to be an allusion to the 
gladiatorial shows. See I. 28, 17, 'a show for 
grisly Mars.' 

39. ' Marsian.' All theMSS. have 'Mauri;' 
but the conjecture is so much better, and 
the change is so slight, that it has been adopt- 
ed by most commentators. See 11. 20, iS. 

41. 'a youth.' Augustus was forty at this 
time; but 'juvenis' is applicable to any man 
in the vigour of life ; and the emperor seems to 
have liked the name, which suited him better 
in the earlier days of his power. He is twice 
called 'juvenis' by Virgil: Eel. t. 4a, 
500. 'kind Maia's winged child.' Mercury. 



HORACE. 



III. 

i. 'So.' The usual sequence would be 'ut 
reddas,'='on this condition, that you restore,' 
&c. But by a poetical variation Horace sub- 
stitutes the pres. subj. alone. 

' the goddess/ Venus, who is invoked as a 
Power of. the sea. With 'potens Cypri,' comp. 
' Naiadiim potens' III. 25, T4. 

2. ' Helen's brethren,' Castor and Pollux. 
The phosphorescent light seen on the mast 
after a storm was supposed to denote their 
propitious presence. See 1. 12, 27. The Ita- 
lians, by a curious corruption of the name of 
Helen, have formed the expression ' St. Elmo's 
fire.' 

3. 'the father of the winds,' tEoIus. 

4. 'Iapyx.' This was a name of the West 
wind, blowing from Italy towards Greece. 
' lapygia' is one of the names of Apulia, which 
lies on the eastern coast of Italy. 

14. 'Hyades,' 'vaSe?,' the rainy stars. Virg. 
JEn. in. 576. ' Notus,' the South wind. 

20. ' Acroceraunia,' 'the peak of the thun- 
derbolt;' a headland of Epirus, now 'il monte 
della Chimera.' Virg. Georg. 1. 332. 

27. ' child of Iapetus,' Prometheus. 

36. 'the toiling Hercules : ' when he brought 
up Cerberus from Hades. 

IV. 

8. 'fiery Vulcan.' The Scholiast says that 
this is an allusion to the thunderbolts forged 
by the Cyclops for Jove ; for thunderstorms 
return with the warm weather. The idea is 
that all things renew their vigour with the 
coming of spring. 

11. 'Faunus.' The 13th (Ides) of February 
was sacred to Faunus. Ovid, Fast. 11. 193. 

'with impartial foot.' This phrase expresses 
the rudeness and violence of Death's approach. 
Plautus, Most. 11. 2, 23. 

14. 'Sestius.' L. Sestius was consul to- 
gether with Augustus, 23 B.C. 'blest,' 'beate.' 
This word, as it often does, combines the notions 
of wealth and happiness. 

16. 'fantastic Shades.' lit. 'the Shades that 
are fables ;' i. e. ghostly and unsubstantial. 

18. 'by the dice's cast.' It was usual to 
elect by lot one of the company to act as ruler 
of the feast. 11. 7, 25. St John 11. 8. 



8. 'and stare;' 'emirabitur.' The prefix is 
intensitive. This is the only place where the 
word occurs in writers of the Augustan age. 

13. 'votive tablet.' Those saved from ship- 
wreck used to hang up on the wall of Neptune's 
temple a votive tablet and the garments they 
had worn in the time of their -peril. Virg. 
JEn. xii. 766. 

VI. 

1. 'Varius.* See Sat. 1. 10, 43. 

2. 'a bird of Homer's strain,' lit. 'of Mseo- 
nian strain.' Mseonia was an old name of 



Lydia, and Homer was born at Smyrna in that 
kingdom, according to one tradition, 'bird,' 
'alite,' abl. Perhaps abl. abs. As an abl. of 
the agent is contrary to usage, some call this 
an abl. of the instrument; but 'Vario' must 
be in apposition with 'alite,' and he certain- 
ly must be regarded as a personal agent. If 
Horace did not (as it has of course been con- 
jectured that he did) write 'aliti,' he must have 
taken this grammatical license to avoid the 
jingle of the last syllables of 'Maeonii,' 'aliti.' 

5. ' Agrippa.' M. Vipsanius Agrippa was the 
ablest general of Augustus, and married his 
only child Julia.. 

8. ' Pelops' murderous house ;' the subject 
of many of the Greek tragedies, the Agamem- 
non, Eumenides, Electra, &c. 

16. 'a match for the gods.' 'Soup-Ofi ttro?,' 
Iliad, v. 884. 

18. 'with close-pared nails;' so that the 
combat is only playful. Bentley's conj. 'strictis,' 
'drawn,' (like swords,) seems to convey too 
strongly the idea of ferocity. 

VII. 

1. 'Let others praise,' lit. 'Others will 
praise,' i.e. 'will, if they please.' 

2. 'with its double sea;' 'b'maris,.' Gr. 
ZiOdAaacros ; as Corinth lies on the isthmus. 

3. ' Thebes made glorious by Bacchus,' as 
being the son of Semele. I. 19, 2. 

4. 'Tempe ;' the famous valley of the river 
Peneus, between Olympus and Ossa. 

5. 'the city of virgin Pallas,' (Athene,) 
Athens. 

9. ' Argos meet for steeds ;' \.tttt6{5otov. 
Pindar calls Argos "Hpa? Sco/xa 6eonp<=Tres f Nem. 
ix. 3. 'rich Mycenae;' 7roA u^p vcrcx.. 

10. 'enduring Lacedaemon;' the virtue al- 
ways especially ascribed to the Spartans. 

11. 'fruitful Larissa :' ( Aapl(rcrai/ epi/3a)AaKa,' 
//. 11. 841. 

12. 'home of Albunea,' 'the sacred cave of 
the Nymph.' Now called 'Solfatara.' It is 
described in Virg. s&n. vn. 82. 

13. ' Anio,' now 'Teverone.' the 'torrent' 
refers to the cascades of Tivoli. (Tibur.) 

19. 'Plancus.' L. Munatius Plancus con- 
stantly changed from one party to another 
during the civil wars. He was once consul, and 
received from Augustus the offices of censor 
and prefect of the City in 22. B.C. 

21. 'Teucer.' He was said to have been 
banished by his father Telamon, because he did 
not avenge the wrong done to his brother 
Ajax. 

27. 'conductor,' 'auspex.' A consul in com- 
mand of an army had the right of taking the 
auspices : hence the word 'auspicia' came to 
mean 'leadership,' and 'auspex' 'leader.' 
Comp. Virg. s£?t. vi. 781. 

28. 'Apollo.' The prophecy is more fully 
given in Eurip. Helena 146. 

29. 'Salamis.' The new Salamis was in 
Cyprus. 

30. 'ye who oft.' See Virg. ^En. 1. 198, 
imitating Odyss. xn. 208. 



1.8- -i 4 .] 



NOTES. — THE ODES. 



221 



VIII. 

3. 'Plain.' The Campus Martius. 

6. 'sharp-toothed bits,' &c. lit. 'bits set 
with wolves' teeth ; ' from their likeness in 
shape. Gaul was famous for horses, and at 
one time supplied the Roman armies. Tacitus, 
Ami. 11. 5. 

13. 'The son of Ocean Thetis;' Achilles, 
disguised as a girl, at the court of Lycomedes, 
king of the island of Scyros. 

16. 'the slaughter,' &c. This meaning seems 
the most appropriate to the might of Achilles, 
lit. 'forth into slaughter and the Lycian,' &c. 
The meaning may be ' forth into the slaughter 
which the Lycian battalions will effect.' 

IX. 

1. The first part of this ode is imitated from 
an extant fragment of Alcaeus, preserved by 
Athenaeus ; x. 430. 

2. 'Soracte.' A hill about 13 miles from 
Rome, in the country of the Falisci, prob. the 
modern Monte Tresto. 

• 8. 'Thaliarch.' tfaAuxpxo?, a ruler of the 
feast. 

23. 'forfeit/ Possibly the word (pignus) 
would be better translated by 'keepsake.' 

X. 

1. 'Atlas' grandchild;' as being the son of 
Maia, Atlas' daughter. 

2. 'that didst skilfully fashion.' The same 
praise is given to Mercury by Ovid, Fast. v. 
665. 

9. 'At thee.' The story is told in the so- 
called Homeric hymn to Mercury, 1. 20. 

10. 'tried.' Lit. 'while he tries.' The 
historic present is poetically employed, though 
followed by past tenses. 

13. 'Likewise too.' Iliad, xxiv. 445. 

15. 'Thessalian watch-fires/ Those of the 
Myrmidons. 

18. 'with golden wand.' Comp. 1. 24, 16, 
and Virg. y£«. iv. 242, following Horn. II. 
xxiv. 343. 

XI. 

3. Chaldaean tables;' lit. 'Babylonian.' 
The passion for studying the Oriental science 
of astrology, which was afterwards carried to 
such an extent (Juvenal vi. 553, &c), was 
introduced at least as far back as the time ot 
Cicero, who speaks of 'Chaldaean calculations.' 
(de Divin. n. 47.) 

6. 'since our span is short;' 'spatio brevi;' 
abl. abs. 

XII. 

1. The beginning of this ode is an imitation 
of Pindar, Olymp. 11. 1. 

2. 'Clio.' lit. 'the proclaimed' She is 
usually the Muse of history ; but sometimes, as 
here, the Muse of panegyric, as the name 
implies. 

5. 'Helicon,' &c. Mountains sacred to the 
Muses. 

9. 'by his mother's art;' that of Calliope, 



'she of the beautiful voice,' the first of the nine 
Muses. 

11. 'strong in the power,' &c. lit. 'persua- 
sive (blandum), so as to lead.' The constr. is 
like the Gr. a><TTe with inf. 

15. ' the firmament ;' ' mundus ;' lit. = koct/uo?, 
the order of things. Here it is all the visible 
part of the universe, except the earth and sea. 

22. 'Liber,' lit. 'the free god.' He is 
named as a warrior god on account of his 
expedition to India and his valour in the war of 
the giants. (11. 19, 17, &c.) 'Maid.' 'Diana.' 

25. 'boys of Leda,' Castor and Pollux. (1. 
3, 2, note.) 

35. 'Cato's glorious death.' Comp. 11. 24. 
Virg. JE11. viii. 

37. 'Paullus.' The consul L. ^Emilius 
Paullus, at the battle of Cannae. 

4». 'Curius.' M. Curius Dentatus. 

46. 'Marcellus.' It seems most natural to 
refer this passage solely to the son of Octavia, 
the sister of Augustus, who died when about 18. 
The previous line is in favour of this explana- 
tion. Comp. Virg. JEn. vi. 861, &c. 

47. 'the Julian star.' The use of the ad- 
jective makes it probable that the 'star' 
signifies the glory of all the Julian gens; and 
not of Julius Caesar or Augustus only. 

54. ' in proper triumph;' 'justo triumpho,' 
i.e. complete, well -deserved. The word is 
formal and technical. 

56. 'Seres.' They have been generally 
considered to be the Chinese. Pliny says they 
excelled in making silk. Nat. Hist. yi. 20. 

59. 'sacrilegious groves,' i.e. those pro- 
faned by crime. The single mention of 'ille,' 
(he, Caesar,) in the previous stanza, seems 
meant to be contrasted with the triple ' thee, 
thou, thou,' in this, so as to express the deeper 
homage due to Jove. 

XIII. 

2. 'waxen arms;' i.e. rounded, and, per- 
haps, white. 

3. 'labouring bile.' It was an established 
notion that the liver was the seat of passion, 
whether jealousy, anger, or love. Sat. 1. 9, 
66. Od. iv. 1, 12. 

11. 'brawls,' &c. Comp. I. 17, 25: Tibullus 
1. 6, 14. 

16. 'the quintessence.' According to the 
Pythagoreans, the fifth and purest of the ele- 
ments was ether : whence the modern word 
'quintessence.' So the fifth part is here put 
for the finest part. 

XIV. 

I. It is doubtful when this ode was written ; 
perhaps about 32 B.C., when the rupture be- 
tween Octavianus and Antonius was imminent. 

5. 'the swooping Africus.' See 1. 1, 15, 
note. 

6. 'not bound with cables.' Comp. Acts 
xxvn. 17. 

II. 'a Pontic pine.' Pontus was famous for 
its pine-forests. Catullus, 4. 9. 

15. 'Unless you owe,' &c. The phrase 
seems to be modelled on the Gr. constr. of 



222 



HORACE. 



[I. 15-18. 



b<j>\t.crKdveiv with ace. of the thing : e.g. ye'Aw- 
ra, aia-Yv 1/171/, &c. 

17. 'You that were late/ i.e., as it seems, 
after the campaign of Philippi. 

20. 'Shun you the seas,' &c. i.e. 'Avoid 
running heedlessly upon the rocks and shoals 
of civil war.' 

XV. < 

1. 'the shepherd;' Paris, who was exposed 
on Mount Ida, that he might not cause the fall 
of Troy ; and there brought up by the shep- 
herds. So 'IfiaiW {5ovTai>, Eur. Hec. 932. 

3. 'rest unwelcome'; i.e. at variance with 
the restless movement of the winds. 

5. f ' Nereus ;' ' the god of the flowing water.' 
He is spoken of as a true prophet in Hesiod, 
Theog. 333. 

' with an evil omen.' Lit. 'bird;' as omens 
were taken both from the notes and the flight 
of birds. Comp. in. 3, 61 ; Epod. 10, 1. 

7. 'to destroy.' In the Latin, there is a 
sort of 'zeugma,' as the sense of 'rumpere' 
properly agrees only with 'nuptias.' 

xi. 'aegis.' The der. is prob. aXaraai, to 
flash: others connect the word with cuf, a 
goat ; so meaning literally the gnat-skin lining 
or pendant of the shield. In Horn, the segis 
is the shield of Zeus; afterwards it signified 
the corslet of Pallas, as in Eurip. Ion, 996, Ov. 
Met. VI. 78, and in this passage. 

13. 'Venus;' the champion of Paris, who 
had awarded to her the prize of beauty. 

15. 'accompany.' Lit. ' divide your songs 
with the harp;' i.e. partly play and partly 
sing them. 

17. 'Cretan wand.' The Cretan archery 
was famous. Virg. Eel. x. 56. 

^19. 'Ajax.' J Had 11. 527; 'Oi'Arjos ra^v? 
Ala?. 

^24. ' Skilful in the fight.' //. v. 549, /xa'x^s 
ev eiSore. 

38. 'Tydides,' &c. See //. iv. 40s", 17/aeis 
Tot naTepwv /aey' ajueiVove? ev\6^eQ' elvax. 

34. 'Achilles' angry fleet.' Poetically, for 
the anger of Achilles himself. 

XVI. 

3. 'iambics,' i.e. satirical poetry; Horace 
says that Archilochus adopted the iambic as 
the proper metre of satire. Art. Poet. 79. 

4. 'Adrian sea.' See 1. 1, 15, note. Comp. 1. 9. 

5. 'Dindymene.' A name of Cybele, from 
mount Dindymus in Phrygia, sacred to the 
goddess. 

8. ' Cory ban tes,' the frantic priests of Cy- 
bele. 

13. ' Prometheus.' The legend was, that 
Prometheus and his brother exhausted all the 
elements of creation on the other animals, and 
so were obliged to make up the character of 
man of qualities borrowed from various crea- 
tures. This account of the making of man by 
Prometheus from mud and water is later than 
Homer and Hesiod. 

14. 'was constrained,' literally, 'is said to 
have been constrained,' 'coactus' = 'coactus 
esse.' Comp. Martial 'affatus dicitur undas,' 
and Juvenal, Sat. 10, 'dicitur olim velificatus 



Athos.' Though the construction is also fre- 
quently found in Livy, Prof. Kennedy was 
the first who pointed out its use in this passage. 
Formerly, 'coactus' was taken as a participle, 
and the following 'et' as='etiam.' 

17. 'Thyestcs.' The quarrel between Thy- 
estes and his brother Atreus is referred to. 

21. ' the hostile plough.' A usual and very 
ancient mode of expressing the utter over- 
throw of a city. Comp. Jeremiah xxxvi. 8. 

XVII. 

1. ' Lucretilis,' the hill at the foot of which 
lay Horace's farm. It is now called ' Mome 
Gennaro.' 

2. ' Lycaeus,' a mountain of Arcadia, sa- 
cred to Pan, with whom Faunus seems here to 
be identified. Virg. Georg. 1. 16 

9. 'the wolves of Mars.' The ferocity of 
wolves caused them to be regarded as sacred 
to Mars, Virg. JEn. ix. 566. 

14. _ 'are dear,' lit. 'are to mv heart.' The 
idiom is frequent in Latin. So in Hebr. Is. xl. 2. 

18. 'Teian.' Teus in Ionia was the city 
of Anacreon. 

20. 'Circe crystal- fair.' This translation 
of 'vitrea' seems more suited to the passage 
than to explain the word as denoting the colour 
of the sea; though it is true that epithets of 
the latter class are applied to Gods of the sea. 
See in. 28, 10, note. 

21. ' harmless Lesbian wine ;' i.e. light and 
soft, and pleasant to drink in the hot weather. 

23, ' Thyoneus,' from Thyone, the mother of 
the so-called 'fourth' Bacchus. Cic Nat.Deor. 
111. 23, 58. With poetical liberty, the god is 
described by titles derived from two of his re- 
puted mothers. The meaning of the passage 
of course is that there will be no quarrel, such 
as might be caused by strong and heady wine. 

XVIII. 

1. 'Varus.' Probably Quintilius Varus of 
Cremona, to whom Virgil dedicates his 6th 
Eclogue, and whose death is lamented in the 
24th Ode of this Book. He is mentioned in 
Art. Poet. 438 as a judicious and skilful critic. 

'plant;' 'severis.' It seems better to ex- 
plain this word, as the fut. perf. ind. expres- 
sing, like the simple fut., a gentle imperative, 
than as the perf. sub., which, however, regular- 
ly follows 'ne' in prohibitive sentences; e.g. 
'do not say it,' 'ne dixeris,' not 'ne d ; cas;' 
'ne die' is poetical. 

2. ' Catilus' walls.' Tibur was said to have 
been founded by Catillus, the son of Amphi- 
araus. 

8. ' the Lapitb.33.' The reference is to the 
quarrel at the marriage of Pirithous and Hippo- 
damia. Ov. Met. xn. 224. 

9. 'Thracians,' lit. ' Sithonians,' a Thracian 
tribe. See 1. 27, 1. 

' Evius,' a name of Bacchus, derived from the 
cry of the Bacchanals, evol, evaV. 

11. 'Bassareus.' This title of Bacchus is 
derived from fiacro-apls, a fox-skin, such as the 
Bacchanals wore, fiacradpa. being a Thracian 
word for a fox. 



I. 19—24.] 



NOTES.-THE ODES. 



223 



12. 'wrapt in.' The mysteries of Bacchus, 
preserved in chests encircled with the foliage 
sacred to the god. 

'beneath the open sky,' 'sub divum.' See 1. 

I. 25, note. The meaning of the whole passage 
is, ' I will not celebrate the rites of Bacchus 
against his will, or divulge his mysteries to the 
uninitiated.' 

13. ' Berecynthian.' Mount Berecynthus in 
Phrygia was sacred to Cybele, the goddess 
who drove her votaries mad. See Catullus 
Ode 63, the 'Atys.' Intoxication is here poeti- 
cally identified with this frantic inspiration. 

15. 'that lifts too high,' lit. 'that lifts 
more than overmuch.' The phrase occurs 
again 1. 33, 1. 

j 6. 'an honour,' &c. i. e. 'an honour which 
belies its name. ' 

XIX. 

1. Repeated, iv. 1, 5. 

2. 'Theban Semele's boy.' 1. 7, 3, note. 

8. 'too dazzling-dangerous.' 'nimium lubri- 
cus.' From the literal meaning of the word, 
'slippery,' the two ideas of 'perilousness' and 
'brightness' are derived, and seem to be here 
intentionally mixed. 

10. 'Scythians,' so often mentioned with 
the Parthians, as the most formidable of the 
remaining enemies of Rome. 

11. 'Parthian;' Virg. Georg. in. 31. 

14. 'vervain,' 'verbena,' The word was 
applied to any sacred plant, iv. 11, 7, note. 

XX. 

2. 'bowls,' 'can tharis.' The word is Greek, 
and is said to be derived from Cantharus, the 
inventor of this goblet. It was a vessel with a 
handle. Virg. Eel. vi. 17. The Sabine wine 
was put into a cask which had held Greek wine 
of superior quality, according to a custom still 
common. 

5. 'knight Maecenas.' Maecenas never ac- 
cepted any political rank ; the honours of the 
state were now little more than names, and the 

t knowledge of the great influence he possessed 
no doubt made the simple name of 'knight' 
(an untitled man of the middle class) all the 
more agreeable to him. 

'Your ancestral river.' The Tiber, which 
flows from Etruria. See I. 1, 1, note. 'Mae- 

! cenas had evidently been much pleased with 
his reception by the people on his recovery 
from one of his many attacks of illness. Comp. 

II. 17, 25. 

9. 'Caecuban,' which divided with Setine 
(which Horace never mentions) the highest 
honours. The district was in Latium, near 
Fundi. Cales in Campania is the modern 
Calvi; the Falernian district was also in 
Campania ; Formiae was near Caieta, now 
Mola di Gaeta. 

XXI. 

1. This hymn to Apollo arid Diana, though 
certainly in no way connected with the Secular 
Hymn, may have also been composed on the 
occasion of some public ceremony of religion. 



2. Cynthus was a hill of Delos, the native 
island of Apollo. 

6. 'Algidus,' in Latium, about twelve miles 
from Rome. Comp. Sec. Hymn 69 ; Eryman- 
thus, a well-known mountain in Arcadia; 
Cragus, a hill in Lycia. 

11. It seems best to take 'humerum' as an 
ace. of limitation governed by 'insignem,' not 
as agreeing with it. 

12. 'his brother's gift,' i.e. which he had 
received from its inventor, his brother Mercuiy. 

XXII. 

I. This ode is addressed to Aristius Fuscus, 
to whom Horace wrote Efiist. I. 10. Nothing 
is known of him, except the little which Horace 
tells us. Comp. Sat. 1. 10, 83. 

5. ' Syrtes,' dangerous sands off the northern 
coast of Africa. The word seems to be loosely 
used here to mean the sands of the sea-shore. 

7. 'inhospitable Caucasus.' The epithet, 
which seems to be taken from the d-rrdvOpwrrov 
Trdyov of iEschylus, (Prom. 20,) occurs again 
in Epod. 1, 12. 

' the river of romance ; * i. e. about which 
many fables are told. Comp. in. 4, 9, 'the 
ring-doves of romance ;' so Wordsworth ; 
'Lady of the Mere, 
Lone-sitting by the shores of old romance.' 
10. 'Lalage' (AaAayew), 'the talkative,' was 
a common name of freedwomen. 

14. 'Daunias,' part of Apulia ; in. 30, 11. 

15. 'landof Juba,' Mauritania and Numidia. 
17. 'Setme,'&c. i.e. either in the frigid or 

the torrid zone. See the description in Virg. 
Georg. 1. 233, &c. 

XXIII. 

5. 'with vague alarm.' Comp. Faerie 
Quee7ie^ in. 7, 1 : 

'And every leaf that shaketh with the least 
Murmure of winde her terror hath encreast.' 

6. 'the approach.' 'Ad ventum' has been 
suggested instead of 'adventus,' and 'vepns' 
or 'vitis' for 'veris.' But the usual reading is 
certainly the most poetical, and does not seem 
too elaborate for the manner of Horace. Orelli 
thinks that ' foliis ' is the abl. of the instr., not 
the dat. 

'chance to.' The perf. of the original appears 
to express the casual and ordinary nature of the 
motion. 

10. 'Gaetulian lion;' i.e. Libyan. Comp. 
Virg. JEn. v. 351. 

XXIV. 

3. 'Melpomene,' the Muse of tragedy, is 
here invoked to inspire the poetry of the dirge. 

5. 'Quinctilius;' see 1. 18, 1, note. 

II. 'entrusted not to them,' i.e. by your 
vows and prayers. 

16. 'with his awful wand.' See 1. 10, 18, 
note. 

17. 'the fates.* Contrary to the usual doc- 
trine, the gods are here assumed to be the 
masters of fate. 

18. 'to join his gloomy flock :' ' nigro gregi. ' 
The dat. is used for 'ad' with the ace, as it is 
in Sat. 11. 5, 49. 



224 



HORACE. 



[I. 25—30. 



19. 'But patience.' See Plautus, Capt. 11. 
1, 1, "Tis best to bear the grief you may not 
cure;' and Virg. JEn. v. 710. 

XXV. 
3. 'that door loves the lintel.' Comp. Virg. 
y£#. v. 163. 'Litus ama;' i.e. 'keep close to 
the shore.' 

10. 'an alley,' 'angiportu.' Lit. 'a narrow 
passage.' It generally means a blind alley, as 
in Terence, Adelphi, 11. 4, 39, and would so 
be the more solitary. 

11. 'the time between the moons.' Theo- 
phrastus, 'On Winds,' iv. , says that these days 
are especially tempestuous. The prep, 'sub' 
here has the signif. of 'about' or 'towards.' 

12. The North wind is called the Thracian 
wind, according to the Greek usage, Thrace 
being the country lying north of Greece pro- 
per. 

20. 'Hebrus,' the river of Thrace, is also 
here used in the Greek manner, (perhaps it 
occurs in a Greek ode on which this of Horace 
is modelled,) for any cold wintry stream. The 
Hebrus is called the mate of Winter, as in in. 
18, 6, the wine-bowl is called the mate- of 
Venus. 

XXVI. 

2. 'Cretan sea.' See 1. 1, 14, note. 

3. 'by whom,' &c. The word refers to 
Tiridates and his followers. He, after the 
expulsion of Phraates, had been elected king 
of Parthia; and Phraates was at this time 
(b.c. 15) threatening to attack him with the 
help of the Scythians. See 11. 2, 17. 

8. L. iElius Lamia was afterwards consul, 
a.d. 2. 

9. 'Pimplea.' Pimpla was a hill near Heli- 
con, sacred to the Muses. 

10. 'Lesbian quill.' I. 1, 34, note. 

XXVI T. 
2. 'like Thracians.' See I. 18, 9. Thrace 
was sacred both to Mars and Bacchus. 

5. 'scimitar,' 'acinaces;' a Persian word. 

10. 'potent Falernian.' Horace calls this 
wine 'fortis' in Sat. 11. 4, 24. Athenaeus says 
there were two kinds, the harsh and the sweet ; 
and Catullus, 27. 1, asks for cups of the drier 
Falernian. 

11. 'the brother.' The name, which is 
clearly only ornamental, seems taken from the 
Greek. 

12. 'with elbow at rest;' for the Romans 
reclined at table on the left elbow. 

1 9. ' Chary bdis ;' i.e. a mistress as rapacious 
as the famous whirlpool. Epist. 1. 14, 33 ; ' the 
grasping Cinara.' 

21. 'Thessalian drugs;' the epithet is fre- 
quent in poetry. See Epist. n. 2, 209. Epod. 
5, 45- 

24. 'Pegasus,' 'Chimsera.' The story is 
told in Horn. //. vi. 181, &c. 

XXVIII. 

1. ( The distribution of the dialogue in this 
ode is a matter of some difficulty. The division 



here adopted is that of Orelli, who follows the 
arrangement of a certain friend, whose name 
he does not give. It is curious that so careful 
a writer as Horace should (1. 3) use words 
which at least imply that the sailor thought 
that Archytas had already received the rites of 
the dead, and yet make the philosopher after- 
wards demand the gift of burial. 

5. Archytas of Tarentum was a Pytha- 
gorean philosopher, the contemporary of Plato. 
His death by shipwreck is not elsewhere re- 
corded. 

3. Mount Matinus (now Matinata) lies on 
the coast of Apulia. So the wpods of Venusia, 
the birth-place of Horace, are rrfentioned in 1. 26*. 

8. ' the sire of Pelops ;' Tantalus. 

10. The son of Panthus was Euphorbus, 
who was slain by Menelaus. The legend was 
that Pythagoras maintained that the soul of 
Euphorbus had by metempsychosis passed into 
his own body; and he professed to recognise a 
shield hung up in a temple, as having once be- 
longed to Euphorbus. 

17. 'a show.' See 1. 2, 36, note. 

20. 'one life,' lit. 'head.' Proserpine was 
said to cut away a lock from the head of the 
dying as an emblem that the victim was doom- 
ed to Hades. This is mentioned in the story 
of Dido's death, Virg. /En. iv. 698. 

21. Orion sets at the beginning of Novem- 
ber. Comp. in. 29, 18. 

29. 'Neptune,' for Taras, the founder of 
Tarentum, was said to have been the son of 
Neptune. 

26. So the ghost of Palinurus to ./Eneas ; 
'Cast earth upon me,' ALn. vi. 365; and in 
1. 505 iEneas, addressing Deiphobus: ' I set up 
in your honour an empty barrow, and with 
solemn cry thrice called on your spirit.' 

XXIX. 

1. This ode was written before the un- 
successful expedition of ./Elius Gallus to Arabia 
in 24 B.C.. The Arabs had the reputation of 
fabulous opulence. Horace playfully remon- 
strates with Iccius on his lust for wealth, in 
Epist. 1. 12. 

3. ' Sabsea,' a district of Arabia Felix. 
Milton, Par. Lost, iv. : 

' Sabsean odours from the spicy shore 
Of Araby the blest.' 

4. ' Mede,' the Parthian, as usual. 

# 9. 'Seric,' 1. 12, 56, note. Archery is men- 
tioned as an accomplishment especially Ori- 
ental. 

11. 'river-currents.' Comp. Eurip. Med. 
410. 

14. Pansetius of Rhocjes was a leader of 
the Stoics, and the friend of the younger Afri- 
canus and Laelius. 

15. ' Iberian corslet.' Spain was even then 
celebrated for its steel. 

XXX. 

1. _ Cnidos was a city of Caria, where Phryne 
is said to have supplied to Praxiteles the model 
for the statue, of which the Venus de' Medici is 
thought to be a copy. Coins of Cnidos were 



engraved with a figure which bears a general 
likeness to the Venus de' Medici. Paphos is 
mentioned by Homer as the haunt of Venus. 
{Odyss.vui. 362.) 

8. Mercury is associated with Venus, as 
the god of skilful and persuasive eloquence. 

XXXI. 

1. The reference is to the consecration of 
Apollo's temple en the Palatine, (which was 
also the imperial library,) after the battle of 
Actium. 

7. 'Liris,' flowing between Latium and 
Campania; now the Garigliano. III. 17, 8. 

9. ' Cales.' 1. 20, 9, riote. 

13. 'beloved by Heaven,' &c. The pas- 
sage is of course ironical. 

XXXII. 

4. 'first tuned.' I. 1, 34, note. 

6. ' dauntless in war.' Comp. 11. 13, 31, 
note. 

15. The use of 'cunque,' except in com- 
position with other words, is very uncommon, 
'cunque vocanti ' here = ' quandocunque te 
vocavero.' 

XXXIII. 

1. 'Albius.' See Epist. 1. 4. 

'To warn you.' There can be little doubt 
that it is right to adopt this construction, both 
because 'ire' is at least but rarely used with 
the pres. subj. to express a prohibition, and 
because the analogy of such passages as the 
following strongly favours this rendering. 11. 
4, 1. in. 9, 1 : &c. See also 1. 18, 1, note. 

3. 'chant,* 'decantes.' 'De' has here an 
insensitive force, expressing the endlessness and 
sameness of the elegies. So Epist. I. 1, 64. 

'because.' 'Cur' is sometimes used for 
'quod,' esp, after verbs of accusation, grief, 
anger, &c. Epist. I. 8, 9. 

5. ' low brow.' Comp. Epist. 1. 7, 26. 
11. 'brazen yoke.' So in. 9, 17. 

13. ' a better mistress.' Orelli, following 
Peerlkamp, construes 'though love for a 
better object was beginning to possess me.' 
There can surely be no doubt that the 'Venus' 
here means a person, as it does in I. 27, 14, 
' quae te cunque domat Venus ;' and in Virg. 
' Eel. in. 3, 68, 'Parta mese Veneri sunt mu- 
nera.' 

XXXIV. 

2. 'Wisdom's foolishness.' This kind of 
paradox is probably common in all languages, 
though less frequently found in Latin than in 

, Greek. The ' wisdom ' is the Epicurean philo- 
sophy. Epist. 1. 11, 28. So 1 Cor. 1. 20. 

3. 'versed,' 'consultus,' with gen. The 
phrase is formed on the analogy of 'juris con- 
sultus.' 

5. ' Father of the sky,' 'Diespiter. Gr. 
Atbs and Lat. 'dies' are words of the same 
original signif. 

9. 'ponderous earth.' The earth is thus 
styled in contrast to the other elements. 
I 10. 'Taenarus:' now Cape Matapan, where 



there was said to be an entrance to Hell. Virg. 
Georg. iv. 467. 

11. 'confine of Atlas;' as being on the 
Ocean, at the limit of the world. The phrase 
seems a translation of the reproves 'ArkavTiKoi 
of Euripides, Hippol. 3. 

13. ' God,'&:c. i.e. 'The power of the Deity 
is also shewn in many other ways.' Horace is 
probably thinking of the expulsion of Tiri- 
dates from the throne of Parthia by Phraates. 
Orelli thinks the word 'crest' is particularly 
applicable to the oriental tiara. 

15. 'with flapping.' The same metaphor 
is used in in. 9, 53. 

16. ' sustulit ' and ' posuisse ' are used aoristi- 
cally, to denote the habit. 

XXXV. 

1. 'Antium,'now Azzo rovinato, the capital 
of the Volsci, where were the temples of two 
goddesses of fortune, which were consulted as 
oracles. 

2. 'strong,' 'praesens.' The idea of power 
is derived from the word's literal signification 
of readiness. So in Psalm xlvi. i, ' a very pre- 
sent help in trouble.' Comp. in. 5, 2; Virg. 
Eel. 1. 41. 

7. ' Bitbynian keel,' as that country was 
famous for its timber. The Carpathian sea 
was the part of the JEgsaan between Rhodes 
and Crete, and was so called from the island 
of Carpathus, now Scarpanto. 

9. Dacia was to the north of the Eastern 
part of the Danube. 

17. 'fell Necessity;' the Kpareprj dvdyK.y\ 
of Homer. {Odyss. ix. 273). 

18. 'large spikes;' lit. 'spikes to fasten 
beams.' See iEschylus, Siippl. 945. The 
'spikes' of Necessity had passed into a pro- 
verb among the Romans. Cic. Vei'r. 5. 21. 

21. 'Thee Hope,' &c. The metaphor is 
rather confused. The meaning is that Hope 
and true friends follow a man through all the 
changes of fortune. 

30. 'new-raised swarm;' referring to the 
expedition of Gallus, mentioned in 1. 29. 

39. ' forge into another shape ;' so that no 
trace may remain of its former employment. 

40. The Massagetae were a people of Scy- 
thia near Mount Imaus. 

XXXVI. 

1. The return of Numida was probably in 
24 B.C. after serving under Augustus in the 
campaign against the Cantabri. 

7. 'Lamia.' See 1. 26. 

9. ' toga.' The toga virilis was generally 
assumed after the completion of the 14th j T ear. 

10. ' mark of chalk.' Pliny says it was a 
Thracian custom to mark each day of life by a 
black or white pebble, and thus to estimate, at 
death, the happiness of each man's lifetime. 

12. ' Saliar mode.' So iv. 1, 28. 'Salium' 
is prob. an adj., not gen. plur. for * Saliorum.' 

14. 'Thracian draught,' 'amystis,' fr. Gr. 
a/avoTi?. Lit. a draught without closing the 
lips, i. e. continuous. 



HOR. 



15 



226 



HORACE. 



[I. 37-— II. 3- 



XXXVII. 

1. The news of the death of Cleopatra was 
brought to Rome in 30 B.C. The beginning of 
this ode is taken from a fragment of Alcseus. 

3. 'the couch of the gods.' Referring to 
the ceremony called ' lectisternium.' See Diet. 
A ntiq. 

4. 'now 'twere meet.' The use of the im- 
perfect expresses that the date has previously 
arrived. ' It is full time.' 

14. ' distraught,' lymphatam = Gr. vv\x§6- 
tt\t]ktov. The nymphs were said to inspire 
men with panic. Ovid, Her. 4. 49. 

20. Haemonia was the poetical name of 
Thrace. 

21. ' But she/ 'quse.' This is an example 
of a construction, in which the relative agrees 
with the antecedent in sense though not in 
grammar ; 7rpb? to <rr\i*aiv6ixevov, as it is called. 

24. ' essayed to mend her loss by winning ;' 
'reparavit.' Orelli seems right in explaining 
the word, as meaning to win something in ex- 
change for what is given up. He compares 
the force of the French 'regagner.' 

29. Others render ' made more dauntless by 
her resolve to die;' taking 'morte' as abl. 
instr. 

30. ' Liburnian galleys. ' The light Roman 
ships of war, so called as resembling those 
formerly used by the Liburnian pirates, a people 
of Illyria. Epod. 1. 1. 

XXXVIII. 

2. Strips of linden bark were used to bind 
together a variety of flowers and leaves ; so 
such a garland is contrasted with the ' simple 
myrtle.' 

5. 'with busy toilsomeness to add;' 'alla- 
bores.' This word is used by Horace alone, 
and by him only here and in EJ>od. 8. 20. 

BOOK II. 

I. 

1. Metellus was consul in B.C. 60, the year 
of the first triumvirate, as it is sometimes 
called. The civil war did not actually break 
out till ten years later. 

3. 'the game of Fortune.' ill. 29, 51. 
'pernicious leagues;' especially that between 

Pompey and Caesar. 

9. 'tragedy.' Sat. 1. 10,42; Virg. Eel. 3. 
86. 

12. ' Cecropian,' Athenian, from Cecrops, 
the first king of Attica. 

14. C. Asinius Pollio had been a partisan 
of J. Csesar throughout the civil war: he after- 
wards attached himself to Antony, from whom 
he received many favours. Though he did 
not follow his patron in his later actions, he 
had the generosity to refuse to _ accompany 
Octavianus on the expedition which resulted 
in the battle of Actium. From this time he 
retired from public life. He was the patron 
of Virgil, and to him are dedicated the 4th 
and 8th Eclogues. The 'Dalmatic triumph* 



was won by his conquest of the Parthini, a 
tribe adjacent to Dalmatia, B.C. 49. 

24. ' Cato.' 1. 12, 35, note. 

25. 'Juno' is identified with Astarte, the 
queen of heaven, and tutelary goddess of Car- 
thage. 

28. 'an offering.' The citizens who fell at 
the battle of Thapsus are specially referred 
to. Jugurtha is mentioned as the most famous 
of the African kings slain by the Romans. 

32. * Italy;' lit. Hesperia,' 'the land of the 
West,' which generally means Italy, but some- 
times Spain. (1. 36, 4.) The name is taken 
from Greek poetry. 

34. ' Daunian.' 1. 22, 14, note. 

37. 'dirge.' The Op^vot of Simonides of 
Ceus. 

39. 'Dionaean.' Dione was the mother of 
Venus. Sometimes the name is given to Venus 
herself. Ov. East. 11. 461. 

II. 

2. 'metal.' Lit. 'plate of metal.' The 
word is used in a somewhat contemptuous 
sense. 

3. _ In the orig. the gentile and family names 
are inverted, ' Crispus Sallustius.' See 11. it, 
2 ; Sat. 1. 9, 61. The usage is common also 
in Tacitus ; a man -was naturally better known 
by his family name, as being less inclusive 
than that of his gens. 

5. Proculeius is said to have divided his 
property equally with his brothers, who had 
lost their own in the civil war. 

10. 'Libya,' &c. i.e. the possessions of 
Carthage in Africa and Spain. ' Gades ' is the 
modern Cadiz. 

17. 'Cyrus.' The Parthian monarchs (the 
Arsacidae) boasted to be the successors of the 
Persian kings. ' Primates.' See 1. 26, 3, note. 

22. 'lasting,' ' propriam.' The idea of per- 
manence is derived from the lit. signif. 'one's 
own.' Virg. ALn. in. 85. 

III. 

2. Q. Dellius, like many others, repeatedly 
changed from one party to another during the 
civil wars, and finally became the friend of 
Augustus. Seneca calls him ' the vaulter ' of 
the time. 

8. 'cask.' Lit. 'brand.' Each cask was 
marked with the names of the consuls in the 
year of the vintage, in. 21, 1. The older the 
wine, the further it would be from the door; 
'interiore,' 'deep -stored.' 

9. 'where,' &c. Most of the MSS. read 
'quo' not 'qua.' In the next line but one, 
there is a great variety of readings. That 
here adopted is 'Ramis, et,' &c. , as seeming 
the simplest and most natural. Orelli, follow- 
ing Regel, reads 'quo' at the beginning of 
the stanza, and then 'Ramis? quid,' &c. 
' Wherefore does the pine, &c? — Why does the 
brook, &c.?' understanding, 'if we do not 
enjoy them,' or some such expression. This 
is the reading of the oldest MSS., but the 
sense given is certainly rather forced and ab- 
rupt. 



II. 



-9-1 



NOTES.— THE ODES. 



227 I 



14. Some MSS, fead 'brevis,' others 'amce- 
nos,' or both. 

20. 'Your heir.' II. 14, 25. 

21. 'Inachus,' the first king of Argos. III. 
19, 1. Here of course the name represents 
any ancient and noble descent. 

23. ' beneath the sky.' 1. 1, 25, note. 

26. ' the urn,' that of Necessity or Destiny, 
in. 1, 16. 

IV. 

t. See 1. 33, 1, note. 

8. 'a maid.' Cassandra, who was conveyed 
by Agamemnon to Mycenae, where she was 
killed by Clytemnestra, together with the king 
himself. iEschylus, Agaviemn. 

9. 'barbarians.' The word is used accord- 
ing to the later usage of the Greeks, adopted 
by the Romans, for all other nations, and per- 
haps especially for Orientals. 

10. ' Thessalian.' Particularly Achilles and 
his son Neoptolemus. 

13. 'you cannot tell.' 'Nescias' is perhaps 
conditional, and part of the sentence of which 
'maeret' is the principal verb. 'If you know 
not, no doubt she laments,' &c. 

22. ' Heart-whole.' Shakespeare, As yon 
like it, A. IV. Sc. j. The word seems to blend 
with this meaning that of ' Free from all per- 
fidious intent.' 

24. 'fortieth year;' lit. 'eighth lustrum.' 
A lustrum was a space of five years ; so named 
from the general purificatory offering made by 
the censor at that interval of time. 



12. ' many-coloured Autumn.' Other read- 
ings are 'varios' and 'vario.' The reading 
and construction given here are those adopted 
by Orelli. 

13. 'fiercely.' Orelli strangely ex-plains 
' ferox ' to express ' the wildness of youth.' 

15. 'the years,' &c. The years preceding 
the prime of life are regarded as an addition ; 
those following it, as a diminution. Comp. 
Art. Poet. 175. 

23. 'flowing tresses.' 'crinibus' and 'vultu' 
seem best explained as abl. instr. 

VI. 

1. Horace wrote for Septimius the letter of 
introduction which forms the qth Epist. of 
Book 1.; and he is mentioned in a letter by 
Augustus, quoted in the life by Suetonius. 
' Gades,' now Cadiz. 

2. The land of the Cantabrians is the mo- 
dern Biscay. 

3. ' Syrtes.' 1. 22, 5, note. 
5. 'Tibur.' 1. 18, 2, note. 

10. ' Galaesus' (Galaso) is near Tarentum, 
{Otranto,) which was said to have been founded 
by Phalanthus, a banished king of Sparta. 
Virg. Georg. iv, 126. 

11. 'were ruled,' 'regnata;' which is again 
i used as if it was the participle of a transitive 
' verb, in Virg. sEn. vi. 794. 

14. The honey of Mount Hymettus in At- 



tica is said to be still noted for its clearness 
and sweetness. 

'yields not,"decedunt.' So Virg. Eel. 8. 55 ; 
'decedere nocti.' 

15. ' Venafrum/ in the north of Campania. 

18. 'Aulon' (AyAcCv), a valley near Taren- 
tum. 

VII. 

3. 'a Roman ;' i.e. with all the rights of 
citizenship. 1. 1, 7, note. 

5. The Scholiasts say that the name of the 
friend of Horace was Pompeius Varus. His 
return was probably at the time of the amnesty 
after the battle of Actium. 

'chiefest.' It seems more poetical to take 
'prime ' in this sense, than as = ' earliest.' 

8. ' Syrian balm ;' ' malobathro.' The der. 
and the meaning of the word are alike un- 
known. ' capillos ' is the ace. of limitation. 

10. 'my target.' Archilochus, Alcseus, and 
Anacreon are said to have owned to the same 
act ; and Horace may have thought that their 
example excused him; but the confession of 
cowardice is disgraceful to the poet as a 
Roman officer, and unlike the general tone of 
his writings. For 'sensi,' see iv. 6, 2, note. 

12. 'the ignominious ground.' The epithet 
seems to indicate nothing more than the humi- 
liated condition of a fallen man. Iliad, 11. 418. 
The rendering ' prostrated themselves as sup- 
pliants ' seems artificial and needlessly degrad- 
ing. 

13. 'Mercury,' as the protector of poets. 11. 
i7> 29. 

22. ' tankards,' ' ciboria.' Bell-shaped cups 
in the form of the Egyptian lily. 

23. 'shells,' i. e. boxes of this shape, 
'pliant,' lit. 'moist.' The Gr. vypbg is 

used in this sense. 

25. 'Venus.' The highest throw of the 
four dice; 1. 3, 4, 6. 

'lord.' 1. 4, 18, note. 

27. ' Edonians,' a Thracian tribe, the vota- 
ries of Bacchus. 

VIII. 

1. 'faith forsworn,' 'jus pejeratum* seems 
to be a phrase coined by Horace on the 
analogy of 'jus jurandum.' 

10. ' to cheat ;' by swearing by them that 
she will keep her word. 

14. 'the guileless Nymphs.' Comp.. Virg. 
Eel. 3. 9, 'faciles Nymphae.' 

21. ' youthful sons.' In the Lat. 'juvencis.' 
Comp. 11. 5, 6. 

IX. 

1. 'squalid,' 'hispidos,' lit. shaggy and 
bristling, like matted hair. 

2. The Caspian Sea is famous for sudden 
storms. Milton, Par. Lost. 11. 716. 

4. 'Armenia.' The range of the Taurus is 
referred to. 

5. ' Valgius.' C. Valgius Rufus was an 
Epic poet and a rhetorician. He is praised as 
'near to Homer,' in a poem ascribed to Tibul- 
lus, iv. 1, 179 : but the authorship of the 
verses is doubtful. Sa$ I. 10, 82. 



>28 



HORACE. 



[H. 10-13. 



8. ' Garganus,' a mountain of Apulia. 

9. 'dwell upon,' 'urges.' The word is 
used in the same sense in the last elegy of 
Propertius, iv. 11, 1. 

12. 'term of life,' sevum,' (or setas) = Gr. 
yei/eoi, which some explain as = not the whole 
lifetime, but the period required for a new 
generation to grow to manhood; i.e. about 30 
years. 

14. 'the sire/ Nestor. Iliad, 1. 250. An- 
tilochus was killed by Memnon. 

16 'Troilus.' A son of Priam, killed by 
Achilles. Virg. ALn. 1. 475. His death is 
said to have been the subject of a play of 
Sophocles. 

17. ' Cease,' &c. The construction is Greek, 
like \-q^acr bSvpfXiZv in Eunp. Phoen. 1071. 
bo in. 27, 69. 

18. ' newly- won trophies.' The reference 
is probably to the victories of Augustus in B.C. 
20. Comp. Viig. Georg. in. 30. 

20. ' Niphates,' a mountain of Armenia : but 
Juvenal, Lucan, and Statius speak ot a river 
of this name ; so perhaps does Virgil, Geor. 
in. 30. 'rigent' is applied to frozen land, in iv. 
12, 3. 

21. 'river of Media,' the Euphrates. 

23. 'Gelonians,' a tribe of Scythia, first 
mentioned by Herodotus, iv. 108. 

X. 

1. Licinius was a son of the Murena de- 
fended by Cicero. He was afterwards, by adop- 
tion, A. Terentius Varro Murena. In character 
he was restless and ambitious, and was put to 
death in B.C. 23, for a conspiracy against the 
life of Augustus. 

5. 'the golden mean.' Epist. 1. 18, 9. See 
Int. to Epistles. 

13. 'contrary,' 'infestis' and 'secundis' are 
abl. of circumstance. 

19. ' does not always bend his bow.' Comp. 
Sec. Hymn 33. 

21. 'when perils press.' 'Rebus angustis.' 
The phrase elsewhere denotes poverty, as in 
in. 22, 1 ; and 'res angusta domi,' Juvenal, ill. 
164. 

XT. 

1. - Cantabrian,' 11. 6, 2, note. 

2 'Quintius.' In the Lat. ' Hirpinus Quin- 
tius ;' the gentile and family names are invert- 
ed, 11. 2, 3, note. Perhaps this Quintius is 
the friend to whom is addressed Epist. I. 16. 

10. * the ruddy Moon.' The epithet seems 
taken from the colour which the mdon some- 
times shows at her rising. But Propertius, 1. 
10, 8, uses the epithet of the moon in the 
middle of her course. If this is not owing to 
the carelessness of the writer, it is another of 
the many instances of the vagueness exhibited 
by the Greeks and Romans in their use of 
words expressing colour. 

15. 'gray locks,' ace. of limitation, as in 

Ir -7> 8 -_. , 
17. Evius. 1. 18, 9, note. 

23. 'a comely knot.' Comp. 1. 5, 4, and 

in. 14, 2i. 'Spartan* is of course used as 

equivalent to 'neat and simple.' 



XII. . 

1. 'lingering wars,' from B.C. 41 to B.C. 33. 

2. 'accursed Hannibal.' in. 6, 36; iv. 4, 42 

3. 'the Sicilian sea.' Alluding to the nava 
victories of Duilius and Catulus in the firs 
Punic war. 

5. ' Lapithae,' 1. 18, 8, note. 

7. ' children of earth ;' the giants. 

'at the peril.' 'contremuit' is followed by an 
ace, like 'tremisco' in Virg. /En. m. 648. 

13. ' Licymnia.' Probably Terentia, the 
wife of Maecenas. Her misconduct and fasci 
nating beauty caused a series of divorces and 
reconciliations between her husband and her- 
self. The looseness of the tie in this case 
seems enough to remove the objection that it 
was contrary to the manners of the nation to 
write in this light style about a Roman matron 
This use of the word ' dominae ' is also rather 
in favour of this explanation, and so is the 
allubion to the sacred dances of Diana's festi- 
val. 

14. ' lustrous,' ' lucidum ' is used adverbially. 
Comp. 11. 19, 6. in. 27, 67. 

15. 'deeply mutual.' This use of 'bene' 
is not very common. Cic. Att. 14, 7, speaks of 
'literae bene longae.' Comp. the use of the 
French ' bien.' 

21. 'Achaemenes.' The mythical founder of 
the Persian house of the Achaemenidae. Myg- 
donia, a part of Phrygia, was said to have 
taken its name from an ancient king, Myg- 
don. 

24. 'the Arabians:' 1. 29, 1, note. 

27. 'which she would rather,' &c. Lit. 'she 
would be pleased they should be snatched, 
rather than one asking for them.' 'poscente' 
is probably governed by ' magis,' the construc- 
tion being poetically loose for ' eripi magis 
quam posci,' or (amet) ' eripientem magis pos- 
cente.' Other constructions make 'magis pos- 
cente'='magisquam poscens;' or understand 'a' 
before ' poscente;' but these do not seem to give 
an appropriate sense ; and it is contrary to 
usage to explain ' poscente ' as an abl. of the 
agent. I. 6, 2, note. 

28. 'is the first.' The construction is mo- 
delled on the Greek <p9dvot. civ dpTrd£ovaa. 
(Orelli.) 

XIII. 
1. The accident is alluded to again three 
times: 11. 17, 27; in. 4, 27; m. 8, 8. 

4. ' the hamlet. ' Mandela, near Horace's 
farm. 

8. ' Colchian poisons.' Epod. 17. 35. Virg. 
Ed. 8. 95. 

15. ' Carthaginian mariner,' one of Sidon, 
or of Tyre, said to be the mother-city of Car- 
thage, seems intended. 

18. 'the Parthian.' Virg. Georg. III. 31. 

19. 'dungeon.' Others explain 'robur' as = 
' might ; ' but the rendering given here agrees 
best with 'catenas.' The dungeon is the 
Tullianum. Robur is used in this sense in 
Liv. xxxvmi. 59, and Tac. Ann. iv. 29. # 

23. 'the pious.' So 'secretosque pios,' in 
Virg. /En. vin. 670. 



II. 14-17] 



NOTES.— THE ODES. 



229 



29. 'a holy silence.' Milton, Par. Lost, v. 
555 '. 'Worthy of sacred silence to be heard.' 

31. 'tyrants banished.' Those of Mytilene; 
viz. Myrsilus, Megalagyrus, and others. Alcseus 
himself bore a principal part in their expulsion. 

36. 'Furies/ lit. 'Eumenides,' 'the kind 
goddesses;' a conciliating euphemism. 

37. 'the sire of Pelops,' Tantalus. 

38. 'beguiled from their labours.' This use 
of the genitive is Greek, and equivalent to 
jcAeTTTeTat tcCi> irovoiv. 

40. 'Orion.' in. 4, 71. 

XIV. 

1. The friend to whom this famous ode is 
addressed is not otherwise known. Postumus 
is the name of the friend to whom Propertius 
inscribes an elegy, (in. 12.) 

8. 'Geryon.' The mythic Spanish king, 
whose oxen were carried off by Hercules. 
'Tityos.' Comp. in. 4, 77. 

9. ' imprisons.' See Virg. Georg. iv. 478. 

10. 'allwe,'&c. Taken from Iliad, vi. 142, 
01 apovprjs Kaprrov e&ovai. 

11. 'must sail across.' The 'e* in 'enavi- 
ganda' seems intensitive; 'we must sail quite 
to the other side,' 

16. 'Southern wind,' the sirocco, which is 
e-pecially pestilential in the marshy country 
aoout Rome. 

18. ' Cocy tus,' Virg. Georg. iv. 478. 
' Danaus.' See in. 11, 23, &c. 

19. 'condemned to.' The genitive is used 
on the analogy of ' damnatus furti,' &c. 

23. 'hateful cypresses,' as being the em- 
blems of death. 

25. 'Caicuban,' I. 20, 9, note. 

2d. 'pontiff's feasts.' jThey seem to have al- 
most passed into a proverb. Martial, xn. 18, 12. 

XV. 

3. 'the Lucrine lake,' in the neighbourhood 
of Baise, near lake Avernus. The ' pools ' were 
fish-ponds. Lucullus and others made it the 
fashion to form them on an extravagant scale. 

4. 'bachelor plane,' i.e. trees of ornament 
will displace those that are useful. 

6. 'fragrance,' 'narium.' The nostrils are 
curiously put for the odours which they enjoy. 

11. 'unshorn Cato,' the censor. Barbers are 
said to have come to Rome from Sicily in b c. 
300. 

12. 'by the precepts.' See I. 7, 27, note. 
14. 'the public revenue.' This use of the 

neuter, (to kolvov,) is formed on Greek usage, 
'long measuring rods,' lit. 'ten feet long.' 

16. 'shaded North,' because buildings with 
such an aspect would seldom have the sun on 
their fronts. 

17. 'which chance supplied,' i.e. easily 
1 found, to build their cottages. 

18. 'their towns,' i.e. their walls and public 
buildings. 

XVI. 

2. 'surprised.' The more usual form of the 
word is ' deprensus,' corresponding to the Gr. 
Ka.Ta\api(idv(iLV. Some read ' pressus,' 'nearly 
overwhelmed.' 



so as to guide the 



3. 'beam not clear,' 
mariner's course. 

6. ' Medes,' the Parthians, as often. 

7. _ Pompeius Grosphus was a Roman knight, 
a native of Sicily. He is commended in Epist. 
1. 12, 22. 

10. 'clear away,' 'summovet,' the word 
regularly applied to the hctor's office. 

11. 'fretted vault.' 'laqueata' is connected 
with 'lacunar,' 11. 18, 2. These ceilings were 
inlaid with gold, ivory, mosaic- work, &c. 

14. 'salt-cellar gleams,' as being the only 
plate that he owns. The Romans, like many 
other nations, regarded the salt with a kind of 
especial reverence. 

15. 'passion.' 'cupido' is always masculine 
in Horace. 

19. _ 'from his country.' The gen. is used 
in imitation of the Greek construction, as in 
Eurip. Hippol. 281 ; cko^/ao? \6ov6s. So in 
Ovid, Metam. vi. 189. 

25. 'that views with joy.' 'in' seems to 
have the double force of joyful with regard tu 
the present and joyful for the present tune. 

29. Tithonus, the son of Laomedon, king 
of Troy, was beloved by Aurora, who obtained 
for him from Jove the gift oi immortality ; but 
she forgot to ask for that of perpetual youth ; 
so that he slowly wasted away. 

32. 'the hour' is half personified, as the 
goddess of circumstance. 

36. 'purple.' This brilliant dye obtained 
from the murex, a species of shell-fish, is now- 
unknown. 

38. 'delicate.' Others explain 'tenuis 'as 
meaning 'slight.' In Art. Poet. 46, the word 
certainly has the meaning given here, which 
seems to suit best with the context. 

39. 'who cannot lie;' i.e. 'whose decrees 
will surely be fulfilled.' 

XVII. 

3. 'to depart,' 'obire' lit. means 'to under- 
go,' mortem or fa turn being understood. 

Maecenas, according to Pliny, did not have 
one hour's sleep during the last three years of 
his life. 

4. 'chiefest glory.' Comp. 1. 1, 2. 

1 1. ' allegiance,' ' sacramentum ' is here used 
in its special sense, of the oath of obedience 
taken by soldiers. 

12. ' to take," carpere,' derives this meaning 
from the idea that each step 'plucks away' a 
fraction of the journey. 

13. 'Chimaera,' 1. 27, 24, note. 

14. 'Gyas,' the giant son of Gaia and 
Uranus, Hesiod, Theog. 149. 

17. 'looks upon;' i.e. was in the ascendant 
at my birth. 

18. 'terrible Scorpion.' The epithet is 
simply descriptive, and does not mean ' unpro- 
pitious.' All the three stars here mentioned 
were considered favourable. 

'the more prevailing elements;' 'the master 
in my house of life.' 

22. 'Jove's shielding planet.' Jove and 
Saturn appear to be considered as being both 
in the horoscope; but the superior influence nl 



23° 



HORACE. 



[II. 18-20. 



Jove outweighs the malignant power of Saturn. 
The force of the particle in 'refulgens' is rather 
remarkable. 

25. 'the crowded people,' I. 20, 5, note. 

27. 'the tree,' 11. 13. 

28. 'had carried away.' The pluperf. ind. 
is used instead of the subj., as being more 
vivid, since it literally represents the event as 
having really happened. 

'Faunus,' as the protecting god of the coun- 
try. 

29. 'men beloved by Mercury.' Mercury, 
as being the god of eloquence, is one of the 
guardians of poets, II. 7, 13, note. 

30. 'to offer victims : ' to Salus (Health), or 
to Jove the Preserver. 

XVIII. 

2. 'roof,' n. 16, ii, note. 

3. 'from Hymettus.' Architraves of white 
marble from the quarries on mount Hymettus 
near Athens. 

4. 'columns,' of Numidian marble (Epist. I. 
10, 19), called by the Italians giallo antico. 

6. 'a stranger heir.' Perh. one of the 
Roman commissioners, who were able to 
appropriate much of the king's wealth. Others 
think the reference is to Aristonicus, the ille- 
gitimate son of Attalus, who usurped the 
throne, and was expelled by the Romans 
under Perpenna, B.C. 129. 

7. 'Laconian purple,' from Tsenarus in the 
south of Laconia, 11. 16, 36, note. 

12. 'a powerful friend.' Perh. the line 
should be rendered 'my powerful friend,' i.e. 
Maecenas. 

14. 'my Sabine farm alone,' supply 'prse- 
diis.' A villa in the Sabine country was far 
less costly and fashionable than one at Tibur, 
or Tusculum : so Catullus speaks of his own 
farm, which lay between the two districts, as 
being called Tibur tine by his friends, and 
Sabine by his enemies. (44, 1.) 

17. 'You.' Any avaricious old man, as 
appears from the context. The address is 
rather abruptly introduced. 

21. 'to thrust backward.' It was one of 
the fashionable caprices of the time to encroach 
upon the sea by means of enormous piles and 
breakwaters. 

23. 'Nay, why,' i.e. 'Quid dicam de hoc, 
quod,' &c. ' Besides what I have charged you 
with, there is this also,' &c. 

25. 'Your clients' borders.' This was a 
high crime by the provisions of the Twelve 
Tables, as being an abuse of a position of trust 
and influence. 

29. ' Yet no palace,' i. e. ' whatever his 
abode may be here, he will certainly after 
death be compelled to descend to Hades, like 
the poorest of men.' Though the sentence is 
rather curiously formed, there seems no suffi- 
cient reason for Orelli's artificial explanation. 
' Yet no palace more surely awaits the wealthy 
heir than the palace bounded by the confine' &c. 

34. ' the guard of Orcus,' Charon. Horace 
seems to be quoting some Greek story not 
otherwise known. 



:d 



36. 'he,' i. e. Hell, (Orcus,) not Charon. 

40. 'he hears,' &c. Put, for the sake of 
conciseness, by a kind of poetical paradox, for 
' he hears when invoked, and comes though 
not invoked.' It seems better to govern 
'levare' by 'vocatus' ('vocatus ut levet') than 
by 'audit.' 

XIX. 

1. 'amid retired rocks.' The frenzy inspire* 
by Bacchus, Cybele, the Nymphs, &c. is 
always associated with solitude and the wild- 
ness of the country. 1. 18, in. 25, Catullus, 
Ode 63. No doubt the idea is connected with 
the effect which a life of solitude often produces 
on the mind. 

5. ' Evoe.' 1. 18, 9, note. 

8. 'thyrsus,' as the magic wand, whos< 
touch caused madness. 

9. 'Thyiades,' fr. Gr. 0u'co, to rave. Bacch 
704. 

10. ' The fount that flows with wine.' The 
bounteous influences of Bacchus are described 
in Eurip. 

12. 'to picture.' It seems more natural to 
give to 'iterare' this sense of 'reproducing by 
description,' than that of 'describing again and 
again.' 

14. The punishments of Pentheus, king of 
Thebes, and Lycurgus, king of the Edoni, for 
contempt of the worship of Bacchus, are 
variously related. Eurip. Bacch. 633, Theocr. 
Id. 26, &c. 

17. 'rivers,' the Hydaspes and Orontes, 
which he was said to have parted with his 
thyrsus, and so passed over on dry ground. 

'barbarian sea.' The Indian Ocean. The 
construction presents an instance of ^evy/aa. 
Some verb implying 'thou dost calm' must be 
supplied. 

20. 'Thracian Bacchanals,' lit. 'Bistonides,' 
a feminine adjective in the Greek form. The 
Bistonides were a tribe in the south of 
Thrace. 

23. ' Rhcetus,' one of the giants. From the 
part which he took in this war, Bacchus re- 
ceived the name of ytyai/roAerwp, ' the giant- 
killer.' 

28. 'the soul,' 'medius.' The word does 
not seem to be elsewhere used in this sense of 
'being equally excellent in both qualities.' 

29. ' Cerberus.' Bacchus descended to bring 
up his mother Semele. The story is told in 
Apollodorus, in. 5, 3. 

XX. 

1. 'no common wing,' as Horace professed 
himself to be the earliest of Roman lyric poets. 
See Int. to Epistles. 

2. 'of double shape.' This metamorphosis 
is also described in a fragment attributed to 
Euripides (102, D). 

7. 'perish,' 11. 17, 3, note. 

8. 'confined.' 11. 14, 9, note. 

13. 'Icarus,' comp. IV. 2, 2. Virg. y£"«. 
VI. 31. 

For the hiatus of 'Dsedaleo ocior,' see Epod. 
13. 8, JEn. in. 74. 



14. 'Bosporus.' ill. 4, 30. 

15. ' Syrtes.' 11. 6, 3. 

16. 'Hyperborean plains.' These happy 
fields behind the North wind, free from storms 
and frosts, are described by Pindar, Pyth. 10. 

3 1 - 

18. 'Marsian.' 1. 2, 39, note. 

19. 'Geloni.' 11. 9, 23. 

20. 'the Iberian scholar,' i. e. 'the Iberian 
when he shall become a scholar,' though now a 
barbarian. 

22. ' unsightly/ as disfiguring the counte- 
nance. 

BOOK III. 
I. 
t. 'uninitiated.' Gr. a.\x.vy\T0i. Comp. Virg. 
JEn. vi, 258. 

2. 'a holy silence.' Lit. 'be favourable with 
your tongues,' i. e. 'utter no ill-omened words/ 
Perfect silence was of course the safest means 
to ensure this end, and so the phrase came to 
have the signification here given. Comp. Gr. 
eu(f)rjix€iT€. So in Psalm xxxix. 2. 

4. 'maidens and boys,' i. e. 'I sing hymns 
which teach pure morality and religion.' ^ The 
reference is general ; but still there is an 
allusion to the religious chorus formed by 
youths and virgins, such as that of the Secular 
Hymn. 

5. 'flocks.' Gr. 7roijtxeVe? Xacou. 

8. 'with his nod.' Iliad, 1. 528. JEn. ix. 
1 06. 

9. 'it may be that.' Gr. e<n\v O7rco5. 

11. 'the Plain,' the Campus Martius. He 
speaks as if the old Republic still existed in 
substance. 

14. 'Necessity.' 1. 35, 17, note. 

16. 'urn.' 11. 3, 26. 

1 7. ' above whose,' &c. Alluding to the story 
of Damocles. 

19. 'will not yield,' &c, lit. ' will not labo- 
riously create. ' The pains spent in preparing 
the feast represent the 'recherche' flavour of 
the dishes produced. 

24. 'Tempe.' 1. 7, 4, note; and 1. 1, 14, 
note. 

27. Arcturus sets Oct. 29; the Kids rise 
Oct. 6. 

30. ' farm.' Epod. 16. 45 ; Efiist. I. 7, 87. 

'tree.' Particularly the olive. 

32. 'stars.' The dog-star or Cancer. 

33. 'The fish.' 11. 15, 3, note, and 18, 21, 
note, 

37. ' Fear,' &c. The verses closely resemble 
11. 16, 21. 

41. ' Phrygian marble.' Ital. fiaonazzetio. 
Comp. II. 18, 3. 

42. 'than a star.' in. 9, 21, and 19, 26. 

43. ' wearing' is put for the dress worn. See 
Virg. Georg. 11. 466. 

44. 'Achsemenes.' See n. 12, 21, note. 

45. 'Envy.' Comp. n. 10, 8. 
47. ' Sabine.' n. 18, 14, note. 

II. 

3. 'thoroughly learn.' The compounded 
prep, is intensitive, as in iv. 11, 34. 



5. 'beneath the sky.' n. 3, 23. 

10. 'the royal lover.' The prince who has 
come to be the suitor of the maiden, as Corcebus 
came to Troy as the lover of Cassandra. /En. 
11. 341. 

13. 'fatherland.' A fragment of Tyrtaeus, 
7, 1, Bergk, p. 308 ; and Eurip. Troad. 386, 
somewhat resemble this line, which is, however, 
more concisely and happily expressed. 

14. 'the man who flees.' From Sirnonides : 
6 6' o5 OdvaTOS /ct'^e koX tov 4>vy6/xaxov. 

17. The meaning is, that true virtue is 
indifferent to defeat in competition for office ; 
and that her honour is moral excellence. 

20. 'the popular breeze.' ALn. vi. 817. 

22. 'denied to others;' because too hard for 
them. 

26. 'Ceres.' Probably he speaks of the 
Eleusinian mysteries; but the Romans also 
had secret rites sacred to Ceres. Cic. Verr. 
5- 72. 

28. 'to be.' 'ut' is understood after 'vetabo,' 
as it is after verbs of a contrary signif., as 
'volo,' &c. 

29. 'pinnace,' lit. the Egyptian bean, the 
boat being shaped like its pod. 

...'Father of the sky.' 1. 34, 5, note. 

32. 'Punishment.' The idea is frequently 
found. Tibullus, 1. 9, 4. 

Ill/ 

4. 'lord.' Comp. n. 17, 19: 1. 3, 15. 

7. 'sphere.' The firmament being regarded 
as a solid vault. 

9. ' by this course ; ' the consistent practice 
of virtue. 

11. 'roving.' JEn. vi. 801. 

12. 'rosy lip.' Some render 'brilliant counte- 
nance.' The 'roseo ore' of Virg. Alii. 11. 593 
is rather in favour of the first explanation. 

13. Bacchus is named as the son of a mortal 
mother (Semele), and a legendary civiliser of 
mankind. The tigers which draw him (to 
heaven) are emblems of the barbarism he sub- 
dued. 

15. 'Quirinus,' Romulus. Ovid. Fast n. 

493. 

19. 'judge.' JEn. 1. 26. 

22. 'Laomedon.' Virgil {Georg. 1. 502) even 
represents the perfidy of Laomedon as the 
cause of the calamitous civil wars of the 
Romans. 

24. ' chief,' Paris. Ovid (CEnone to Paris), 
' Dux Paris Priamide.' It is awkward to refer 
the word to Laomedon, long since dead, as 
Orelli does ; and of course it is not applicable 
to Priam. 

25. 'have charms for.* Some take 'adul- 
terae,' as a gen., with 'hospes.' The position 
of the word is in favour of explaining it as dat. 
after 'splendet' like 'mihi ridet,' 11. 6, 14. 

30. 'Straightway.' The time between the 
fall of Troy and the flight of Romulus is poeti- 
cally passed over. 

32. 'the Trojan priestess.' Rhea Silvia, the 
mother of Romulus, was of Trojan blood, as 
her father, Numitor, was descended from 
iEneas. 



232 



HORACE, 



[HI. 4, 5. 



33. 'will resign.' The word is used in the 
lit. sense with 'nepotem,' and metaphorically 
with ' iras : ' ' I will remit my wrath.' 

37. 'Provided that.' Perh. 'dum' should 
be rendered 'while.' The sense given in either 
case is almost identical. 

43. 'vanquished,' 'triumphatis' is here used 
as if it was the partic. of a transitive verb, like 
'regnata,' II. 6, 11, and in JEn. VI. 794. 

50. 'while she shows,' &c. lit. 'braver to 
despise, &c. than to force,' &c. i.e. 'rather 
showing courage in disdaining to search for 
gold, than weakness and avarice in applying it 
to impious purposes.' Comp. Soph. Antig. 
221 ; JEn. in. 57. 

55. ' the fires.' 1. 22, 17, note. 

60. 'Troy.' It cannot be supposed that 
Augustus really entertained the idea of remov- 
ing the seat of government to Troy, though 
Suetonius mentions it as being believed of 
J. Caesar. Orelli thinks that Horace foresaw 
the evils which would follow such a transference 
of the capital as was made by Constantine. 

61. 'omen ;' 1. 15, 5, note. 
'Troy.' Mn. vi. 62. 

64. 'consort.' Iliad, 11. 432; JEn. 1. 46. 

65. 'wall of brass/ i.e. 'of adamantine 
strength.' in. 16, 1. 

66. 'Phoebus,' as the founder of the former 
Troy. Virg. Georg. in. 36. 

69. The reading of this line is disputed. 
Perh. 'hoc — conveniet' is that most generally 
accepted. 

. IV. 

1. ' on the flute.' ' Either on the flute, or 
with the voice alone, or on the lyre accom- 
panied by the voice.' 

2. 'Calliope,' properly the Muse of Epic 
poetry. Comp. 1. 12, 2, note. 

9. ' of romance.' 1. 22, 7, note. 

10. 'Apulia.' The sentence is curiously 
expressed. The meaning is that though Mount 
Vultur is partly in Apulia, Horace had wan- 
dered to a part of it, which is beyond the 
boundary. Comp. n. 1, 34. The first syllable 
of ' Apulia,' long in one line and short in the 
next, is an example of the doubtfulness of 
the quantity of proper names in Latin, as in 
Greek. So, 1 talus and Italia; PrLamus and 
Priamides; &c. 

n. 'overcome.* A zeugma. 'Wearied 
with play and (overcome) with sleep.' Iliad y 
X. 98 ; Kaju,aVo> aSrjKores rjSe /cat vttvco. 

14. 'Acherontia' now Acerenza, 'Bantia* 
Banzi, ' Forentum' Forenza. 

17. 'with my body safe.' 'tuto corpore'is 
abl. abs. 

22. ' cool Prseneste ' (Palestrina), because 
on a hill of Latium ; ' Tibur ' Tivoli. ' Baiae,' 
Baja, is prob. called limpid, on account of the 
purity of its atmosphere. 

27. 'the tree.' II. 13. 

28. ' Palinurus ' {capo di Spartimento), a 
cape on the coast of Lucania, named after the 
pilot of iEneas; /En. VI. 373. Horace does 
not elsewhere mention this escape from ship- 
wreck. 

30. ' Bosporus,' 11. 13, 14. 



31. 'burning sands.' 'urentes' seems pre- 
ferable to the other reading, ' arentes,' as being 
a more distinguishing epithet. 

33. 'Britons.' They were said to sacri- 
fice strangers. Tac. Ann. xiv. 30. 

34. The Concans were a Cantabrian tribe. 
The Geloni are called ' arrow-bearers' in /En. 
viii. 725. The Scythian river is the Tanais,ZW. 

38. Other readings in this line are 'fessas' 
and 'abdidit.' 'addidit' seems the better word 
to express the assignment of the veterans as 
new inhabitants of the towns. Orelli quotes 
' additis veteranis' from Tac. Ann. xin. 31. 

40. ' Pierian grot.' A compliment to Au- 
gustus' literary studies. 

41, 'gentle counsel.' Alluding to the cle- 
mency which Augustus, following the example 
of J. Caesar, displayed after the battle of 
Actium. The following verses are meant to 
teach that clemency and goodness, as repre- 
sented by the gods, are better and stronger 
than cruelty and violence, as represented by 
the Titans and giants. 

45. It appears best to govern 'terram,' 
' mare," urbes,' and 'regna,' as comprising the 
material universe, by 'temperat ;' and by 'regit' 
the other accusatives, as referring to the per- 
sons of gods and men. 

50. As 'horrida' stands nearest, 'brachiis' 
is here rendered as abl. instr. At the same 
time, ' fidens' seems also, less directly, to govern 
' brachiis.' 

51. 'the brothers' are the Aloidas, Otus 
and Ephialtes. See Virg. Georg. 1. 280. 

54. * mien,' 'status' expresses a steady and 
determined attitude. 
57. 'aegis.' 1. 15, 11, note. 
58 * eager;' the Homeric A.iA.ato/xevo 9 nroAe- 

fJLOLO. 

59. 'matron Juno,' as being in an especial 
sense the matron among the goddesses. 

63. 'his native wood,' mount Cynthus, in 
Delos. 

6j.^ ' they likewise hate.' Eurip. Hel. 903 : 
/oucrei yap 6 Oebs rrjv flLav. 

77. 'Tityos.' See AEn. vi. 595. The bird 
is the vulture. 

79. Pirithous and Theseus attempted to 
carry away Proserpine. See JEn. vi. 397. 



1. 'cselo' depends both on 'tonantem' and 
'regnare.' III. 4, 50, note. 

The perf. in 'credidimus' is aoristic, and 
denotes the habit, as it often does. 

5. ' conjuge ' is abl. governed by maritus, as 
a verb expressing union. So 'fratre marita,' Ov. 
Her. 4. 134; and 'propagine maritat,' Epod. 
2. 10. 

9. ' Marsian ;' often mentioned as the most 
warlike of Italian peoples. Horace frequently 
introduces the name of the Apulians, his 
countrymen. These words are studiously 
placed close to ' sub rege Medo,' to heighten 
the language of indignation. 

10. 'sacred shields.' The 'an cilia' of Mars, 
the father of Rome. See Diet. Antiq. For 
' toga,' see /En, 1. 282. 



III. 6—8.] 



NOTES.— THE ODES. 



2 33 



12. * Jupiter.' The Capitol is represented 
by its tutelary god. 

15. ' and proved.' The reading 'trahentis' 
seems better than ' trahenti,' which is given by 
one codex only ; since the following clause, 
' si non periret,' &c. indicates an argument 
impressed by Regulus upon the senate. 

23. 'the gates;' those of Carthage, open as 
a sign of security. A rt. Poet. 199. 

27. 'loss' Because the cowardly soldiers 
are not worth their ransom. There is a taunt 
in the 'redeemed with gold' of the preceding 
line, as if being bought in such a way was 
worthy only of a slave. 

' the hues.' Its natural colour. 

30. There can be no doubt that ' deterio- 
ribus' is a dative, as if it were 'viris deterio- 
ribus factis.' 

33. 'surrendered,' 'credidit' is strongly 
contrasted with 'perfidis.' So 'niveum do- 
loso,' in. 27, 25. 

37. ' his life,' i. e. a soldier should save 
his life only by his valour; and he has no 
right to make peace with the foe. 

42. 'as one whose rights were lost/ As a 
captive, he was 'capite deminutus;' lit. 'les- 
sened by the head ;' he had lost his personality 
as a Roman citizen. 

50. 'tormenter.' It has been proved that 
the story of the tortures inflicted on Regulus 
rests on no sufficient evidence. 

53. 'as if.' Orelli thinks that the allusion 
is to the practice of submitting to the patron, as 
arbitrator, the disputes of his clients. It seems 
more likely that Horace contemplates the 
patron as having pleaded his client's cause in 
the public courts. Comp. Efiist. 1. 5, 31. 

56. 'Tarentum/ See 11. 6, 10, note. 

VI. 

1. ' of your forefathers :' in the two gene- 
rations of civil war and anarchy, which had 
elapsed since the time of Sulla. 

5. ' 'Tis because.' See Int. to Odes, p. 23. 

6. ' Principium ' is, no doubt, the nom. To 
take 'hinc' with 'refer' would be very awk- 
ward. 

9. It has been conjectured that by Mo- 
naeses is meant the conqueror of Crassus, who 
is usually known by the name of Surena, 
which was probably his official title. Pacorus 
destroyed the army of Decidius, the lieutenant 
of Antony, in b c. 40. 

10. The omens which Crassus met with at 
setting out for Parthia are often mentioned. 
Cic. de Div. 1. 16. 

14. 'Dacian,' with whom Antony had 
formed an alliance. 'The Ethiopian' is put 
for the Egyptian, with an allusion to Cleopatra. 

17. ' Our times.' See Int. to Odes, p. 24. 

' Ionian.' The Ionians were notorious for 
their effeminacy, which they had derived from 
their connection with the Orientals. 

24. ' from her inmost soul,' lit. ' from her 
soft nail.* The Greek equivalent, e£ dira\^v 
bvvxav, means 'from the place where the 
nails are soft,' i. e. ' from the inner parts,' 
'utterly;' and such seems to be the meaning 



here intended by Horace. The position of 
the expression, after ' matura virgo,' is also in 
favour of this interpretation. Cicero, ad Fam. 

I. 6, 2, used the phrase 'a teneris unguiculis 
cognitus' as meaning ' intimately known.' The 
rendering formerly adopted was 'from her 
earliest childhood:' i.e. from the time when 
her nails were soft. 

'meditatur' perhaps = 'practises.' 

30. ' factor,' 'institor,' is lit. 'one who stands 
in the place of another' (insisto). These per- 
sons are again joined with sailors in Efiod. 17. 
20. 

33. 'Carthaginian blood.' See 11. 12, 2, 
note. Antiochus was routed at the battle of 
Magnesia, b.c. 190, by L. C. Scipio Asiaticus. 

38. The Sabine simplicity and austerity 
were proverbial. Virg. Georg.u. 531. Ovid calls 
the Sabine matrons 'rigidas Sabinas,' in Am. 

II. 4, 15. 

41. 'when the sun,' i.e. though they had 
already worked hard through the day. 

45. 'What is there.' For the sentiment, 
Comp. Virg. Georg. 1. 199. 

VII. 

1. * fair,' 'candidi,' as bringing fine weather. 

3. 'Thynian,' i.e. Bithynian. Bithynia is 
the modern Anatolia. In the next line, 'fide' 
is the old form of the gen. So 'die,' Virg. 
Georg. 1. 208. 

5. 'Oricum,' Erikko, at the entrance of the 
Adriatic. 

6. ' after,' i. e. after the rising of the She- 
goat, Sept. 28. 

10. ' Chloe ' is the hostess. 'Your lover' is 
Gyges, lit. 'your flames.' So Ovid. Am. in. 
9, 56, 'while I was your flame.' 

13. 'the treacherous woman,' Sthenoboea. 
See Iliad, vi. 155 ; and for Peleus, Pindar, Nem. 
4- 54* 

20. ' touches upon ;' 'mover..' The word is 
used as in 'mentionem movere,' and seems to 
suggest the insinuating manner in which the 
stories are introduced. 

22. 'with -heart unshaken.' Comp. 11. 4, 
22, note : and for ' Icarian,' 1. 1, 14, note 

23. The name of Enipeus is borrowed from 
a river of Thessaly : so ' liebrus,' m. 12. Fur 
his accomplishments, comp. 1. 8. The ' Tus- 
can stream' is the Tiber. Virg. Georg. 1. 499. 

29. So Shylock to Jessica, ' Lock up my 
doors ;' &c. Mercka?it oj Venice, A. 2. S. 5. 

VIII. 

1. As to the Feast of the Matrons, see Ovid, 
Fasti, in. 233. 

5. 'you that are learned,' in Greek and 
Latin, (the two polite languages ;) and there- 
fore well versed in the literature of religious 
ceremonies. Orelli compares ' in beiden spra- 
chen,' viz. French and German. 

9. 'this day.' Comp. in. 14, 13. 

11. 'the smoke.' In order to hasten the 
ripening of the wine, it was a custom to ex- 
pose the amphorae for some years to the hot 
air and smoke of the bath-furnaces. Horace's 
wine was probably about forty years old. 



234 



HORACE. 



[III. 9-14. 



13. 'friend.* For this genitive, comp. in. 
19, 9, note. 

17. 'The City's weal.' Maecenas was pre- 
fect of the City during the absence of Au- 
gustus in the East. 

18. The Dacians were defeated by M. 
Crassus in 30 B.C. As to 'the Mede,' see I, 
26, 3, note. 

22. ^ ' the Cantabrian/ n. 6, 2, note. The 
Scythians here are identical with the Geloni 
in 11. 9, 23. 

26. 'as a man not in place.' Maecenas 
never accepted any of the higher offices of 
state, or raised himself above the rank of a 
knight. See I. 20, 5, note. 

IX. 

4. 'The Persians' king.' A proverbial form. 
So Byron : 

'A pleasure worthy Xerxes, the .great 
king. 5 
8. ' Ilia,' the mother of Romulus. 
10. 'skilled to play.' Comp. 'pugnae sciens,' 
1. 15, 24. 

14. Calais was a son of Boreas. Ornytus 
is mentioned in ALn. xi. 677. The names are 
of course merely ornamental. 

18. ' yoke of brass, ' i. e. 'of abiding strength,' 
I- 33, ii- 

21. ^ 'than a star.' in. 1, 42, note: Iliad, vi. 
401, a'Aiy/ao? aVrepi KaAw. 

22. 'frantic Adrian.' Orelli well remarks 
that 'improbus' is applied by the poets to 
everything which exceeds moderation. Virg. 
Georg. 1. 146. Epist. 1. 7, 63, note. 

X. 
r. A burlesque specimen of a serenade 
(TTapa.K\av<Ti6vpov) such as is alluded to at the 
end of in. 8. 

5. ' the grove/ The ornamental shrubs in 
the peristylium. Smith, Diet. Antiq. ' Do- 
mus.' 

7. 'and how.' The zeugma must be sup- 
plied by ' sentis,' or some such word. 

8. 'clear influence;' referring to the frosty 
air. 'Jupiter,' as god of the sky. 

10. ' as the wheel.' The metaphor is taken 
from a well-rope, or some similar contrivance. 

12. The Etruscans were notorious for lux- 
ury. 

14. 'violet hue.' The white violet. Petrarch, 
Son. 187 : 

'Un pallor di viola e d' amor tinto.' 

15. 'Macedonian,' lit. 'Pierian.' Pierus 
was a mountain between Macedon and Thes- 
saly. 

18. ' Moorish.' Comp. 1. 22, 2, 

20. 'water of the sky.' So Efiist. n. 1, 
135- 

XI. 

1. 'Amphion,' as in Art. Poet. 394. 

4. 'seven.' Invented by Mercury, accord- 
ing to the so-called Homeric Hymn ; Terpan- 
der claims to be the inventor (or rather the 
bringer of the invention into Greece), in a 
fragment of his poetry which has been pre- 
served. 

6. 'now a friend.* Odyss. xvi. 270. 



10. 'boundingly, exsultim.' The word is 
not found elsewhere. 

13. 'tigers.' The line seems modelled on 
Virg. Georg. iv. 510. 

15. Orelli takes 'immanis' as gen. agreeing 
with 'aulae.' But the terrible appearance of 
Cerberus, not the vastness of Pluto's palace, is 
surely the principal point in the line. 

17. Many commentators reject the whole 
of this stanza, as spurious; while others have 
suggested a variety of emendations, to get rid 
of the prosaic 'ejus.' But the word occurs 
again in the Odes, iv. 8, 18. 

25. 'daughters of Danaus.' For the story, 
comp. Ovid, Her. 14. 

26. 'void of water;' the genitive is on the 
analogy of 'plenum aquae.' Cic, de Orat. 1. 9, 
37, uses the phrase ' inania verborum.' ' Fun- 
do' is better taken as abh.of place, than of the 
instr. 

35. 'nobly false.' So Cic. firo Mil. 27; 
' mentiri gloriose.' 

47. 'Nurnidia;' as a land of barbarous 
savages. 

51. The 'tomb' is apparently to be a ceno- 
taph recording the love of Hypermnestra. 

XII. 

1. This ode seems to be an imitation of 
a poem of Alcaeus, the first line of which has 
been preserved by Hephaestion. The Ode of 
Alcaeus is in the form of a monologue ; perhaps 
this is so too ; but 1. 4 is rather against the 
notion, nor is it necessary to assume that 
Horace would probably follow Alcaeus in such 
a detail. 

3. 'uncle's,' a proverbial phrase. Sat. n. 
3, 38 ; 'ne sis patruus mini.' 

5. 'craft,' 'Minerva,' as the especial patron 
of spinning. JEn. vm. 409. 

6. ' Hebrus.' in. 7, 23, note. 

8. 'Bellerophon,' as the rider of Pegasus. 

11. 'quick to intercept' The constr. is 
Greek, as in I. 15, 18; 'celerem sequi.' 'exci- 
pere' = Se'xe0-0cu, with the idea of stopping the 
boar at the moment he comes from cover. 

XIII. 

1. This fountain was probably not near Ve- 
nusia, as some have thought, but on Horace's 
Sabine farm. It has of course been identified 
by travellers with various springs in the neigh- 
bourhood. 

2. 'flowers.' Varro says that on the Feast 
of Fountains wreaths were thrown into the 
springs, and the wells decked with flowers. 

13. 'one of the.' This partitive gen. is 
used in the Greek manner : so Strabo, 'JZ.piJ.16vq 

€<XTL Ttof OVK danJlXhiV TTOktbiV. 

XIV. 

1. 'O people.' 'Plebs' has now lost its old 
meaning, and is used as = 'populus.' Virg. 
Georg. 11. 509. 

5. ' peerless lord,' Augustus. Some trans- 
late 'in her one husband,' when the phrase 
(less suitably to the context) would apply not 
to Livia only, but to all matrons. 



HI. i5-<9-] 



NOTES.— THE ODES. 



235 



6. 'to sacrifice,' 'operata' has the force of 
a pres. particip. as in Virg. Georg. 1. 339 ; or 
rather, of the inceptive force of the present, 
which is almost equal to a future : 'prodeat et 
operetur.' operor and facio (like Gr. pe£w) have 
the signif. of 'to sacrifice,' i.e. 'to do' in a 
special religious sense. 

8. ' wreath.' This was worn by all matrons, 
to distinguish them from freedwomen : but here 
it has a special application to the sacrifice in 
which they are engaged. 

11. ' ill-omened, : 111. 1, 2, note. 

14. 'tumultus' is used with the special 
signif. of an outbreak in Italy. jEu. vi. 857. 

18. ' the Marsian' (social) 'war.'" This wine 
would now be about 65 years old. Spartacus 
was leader of the Servile war, which followed 
the Social war, and was quelled in B.C. 71. 

21. 'melodious,' .'argutus' is again used in 
this sense in Efiist. 11. 2, 90; and in Virg. Eel. 
9. 36. 

22. 'sweet with myrrh.' This seems the 
sense of 'myrrheum,' rather than 'having 
naturally a fragrance like myrrh,' as some 
explain the word. Others take the word as 
one of colour, 'dark- brown.' 

28. L. Munatius Plancus was consul in B.C. 
42, when Horace was 22. 

XV. 

1. The names in this ode are all Greek, 
and probably fictitious. 

3. 'tasks.' Her elaborate attempts to pre- 
serve the appearance of youthful beauty. 

4. 'seasonable.' The rendering seems more 
pointed than 'swiftly approaching.' 

10. 'Thyiad,' 11. 19, 9, note. 

14. Luceria was a town of Apulia, noted 
for its wool. The sentence means, 'spinning 
suits you better than feasting.' 

16. 'casks,' comp. 1. 35, 26. 

XVI. 

2. 'doors.' According to some 'doors of 
oak;' which seems rather prosaic after the 
'tower of brass.' 

3. 'had fenced in.' The pluperf. ind. is 
for the subj., as in 11. 17, 28, where see note. 

7. Some such word as ' sciebant' is readily 
understood before 'fore:' 'deo' is the dative. 

12. 'the Argive augur' was Amphiaraus. 
Smith, Diet. Biogr. The 'house' =' the fa- 
mily. ' 

14. 'the man of Macedon.' Philip, the 
father of Alexander. 

16. 'captains.' Referring probably to Me- 
nas, the admiral of Sextus Pompeius, who 
repeatedly changed from one party to the 
other. Epod. 4. 

17. 'money as it grows.' So Juvenal, xiv. 

139- 

20. 'glory of the knights.' 1. 20, 5, note. 

21. 'The more that each man.' Int. to 
Odes, p. 24. 

23. 'as a deserter.' Horace was never rich; 
but the word is here used loosely, to express 
utter aversion. 

26. 'Apulian.' in. 5, 9, note. 



28. _ 'unenriched.' Epist. 1. 2, 56, 'A 
miser is ever in want.' 

31. 'in the sway.' Alluding apparently to 
the possessor of large estates in Africa. 

32^ 'though he knows it not.' Lit. 'being 
happier in lot, it escapes the notice of him,' &c. 
A curious adaptation of a Greek idiom : rev 
ttKovilov kavOavti 6A/3<.coTepoj' ov. 

33. 'Calabrian.' 11. 6, 14. ' Laestrygonian 
- Formian, as Lamus, king of the Laestrygo- 
nians, was said to have founded Formise. 

41- Alyattes was the father of Crcesus. 
'Mydonian.' 11. 12, 22, note. 

XVII. 

1. 'yElius.' Comp. 1. 26. For Lamus, see 
preceding ode, 1. 33, note. 

2. elder 'Lamias.' Apparently, those who 
lived antecedently to existing records. ' ferunt ' 
is opposed to 'memores fastos.' 

5._ Heinsius conjectured 'ducit' for 'ducis,' 
making 'genus omne' its subject. But there 
seems no sufficient reason for the alteration. 
'Tu' is omitted in a somewhat similar case, il 
17, 30. 

7. Marica, the goddess of the coast of 
Minturnae. For 'Liris' see 1. 31, 7, note. 

g._ 'a monarch.' Translated from the Ho- 
meric evpv/cpeiW. 

10. 'seaweed.' So in Virg. Eel. 7. 42. 

13. 'crow.' in. 27, to. 

14. 'to-morrow,' which was perhaps the 
monthly festival of the Genius and the Lares. 
If it was the birthday of ^Elius, this would 
probably have been more clearly expressed. 
As to the Genius, each man's guardian god, 
who came into the world and left it with him, 
comp. Ej>ist 11. 1, 144 ; 2, 187 ; A. P. 210. 

XVIII. 

5. 'in the fulness of the year,' i.e. 'at its 
close.' 

6. 'Venus.' So Ovid, 'Venus in vinis.' 
12. 'hamlet.' Mandela. 11. 13, 4. 

XIX. 

1. The mythical period between Inachus, 
the first king of Argos, and Codrus, the last 
king of Athens, has been calculated to be 800 
years. 

3. 'the race of iEacus.' Achilles, Ajax, 
&c. 

7. 'at what hour;' after 'quota,' 'hora' is 
to be supplied. 

8. 'Pelignian,' i.e. equal to that among 
the Peligni, at Corfinium or Sulmo. 

9. 'in honour of Supply ' poculum in ho- 
norem,' or some similar form. For 'midnight,' 
comp. in 28, 16. 

ir. The Murena, whose election into the 
College of Augurs is to be celebrated, was 
perhaps the friend to whom is addressed 11. 
10. 

12. 'fair cups. ' The most plausible expla- 
nation seems to be this. 'Since the sextarius 
contains 12 cyathi, let the mixture be 3 of 
wine and 9 of water, or vice versa;' 'fair' will 
then = ' complete.' 



236 



HORACE. 



[III. 20 — 24. 



14. 'ecstatic' Gr. e/u./3p6vTT)TO?. As to 
poets' love of wine, see Epist. I. 19, 2. 

16. ' the Grace,' as the emblem of courtesy 
and temperance. 

17. 'that clasps;' no doubt alluding to the 
arrangement of the figures in the famous group 
of statuary. 

18. 'Berecynthian.' I. 18, 13, note. 
26. 'Hesper.' in. 1, 42, note. 

XX. 

3. 'spiritless.' 'Inaudax,' 'airai- Xeyofxevov.' 
The word does not occur again in Horace or 
any other writer. 

7. 'a mighty conflict.' This is in apposi- 
tion with the sentence. 

8. 'whether the greater booty.' Though 
there is only a single object of the contest, the 
phrase seems to convey clearly enough the 
general idea of superiority; nor is there any 
adequate reason for the awkward emendation 
'cedat, Major an ilia,' (futura sit). 

11. 'to have placed.' The perf. infin. is 
here used, because the act is . regarded as 
preceding that expressed by the pres. in 1. 13. 

15. 'Nireus.' The handsomest of the 
Greeks, next to Achilles. Iliad, 11. 673. 

16. 'he who was.' Ganymede. /En. 1. 28. 
'the hill of waters.' Homer's mS^'co-cra. 

Ovid: 'celeberrima fontibus Ida.' 

XXI. 

I. Manlius, B.C. 65. 

4. 'gracious,' 'pia.' Not only because it 
may bestow slumber, but generally, as the 
creator of pleasure and mirth. 

5. 'in whatever quality,' i.e. 'whatever 
effects you are destined to produce. ' exquisite ' 
'lectum' seems on the whole to = ' chosen' in 
the general sense ; i.e. 'choice.' Orelli thinks 
that the word means 'treasured up.' 

7. 'Come down,' from the store-room 
(apotheca) in the upper part of the house. 
Comp. in. 8, 11, note. 

9. ' Socratic dialogues,' i.e. in Plato. The 
phrase seems simply =' deep philosophy.' 

II. 'Cato,' the Censor. Seneca says that 
Cato was fond of wine. 

16. 'with the blithe juice,' &c, lit. 'with 
blithe Lyaeus (Avcuos), 'the god of frankness.' 
Orelli takes ' Lyseo' as dat. 

18. 'and strength.' Some join 'vires' with 
'cornua.' As to the latter word, comp. Ovid, 
Ars A m. 1. 239 ; and Psalm xcn. 10. 

20. ' crests.' 1. 34, 14, note. 

22. 'Graces.' in. 19, 16, note. 

23. 'shall prolong' the feast which you 
adorn. 

XXII. 

3. 'thrice,' a religious number, 1. 28, 36, 
&c. 

4. 'of triple shape;' in heaven Luna, on 
earth Diana, in hell Hecate. 

8. 'to present with ;' pres. subj. expressing 
the object. 



XXIII. 

1. 'upturned.' The usual action of prayer. 
Iliad, vii. 177 ; /En. iv. 205. 

2. ' Phidyle.' From Gr. <£eiSe<r0ai. 

5. 'Sirocco.' 1. 1, 15, note. 

8. 'deadly season,' 11. 14, 15, note. For 
'pomifero anno,' comp. Epod. 2. 29; /En. vi. 

3"- 

9. 'Algidus,' 1. 21, 6, note. Alba too was in 
Latium, and not far from Rome. 

14. 'ewe,' 'bidens,' 'with two teeth.' When 
a sheep is in its second year, only two of the 
permanent teeth being developed, it appears 
to have only two teeth. Gellius says the word 
is derived from annus, like biennis. 

17. 'clear from guilt,' (imniunis,) lit. 'free 
from obligation.' 

'tetigit' is aoristic : so is 'mollivit.' The 
grammatical construction of this difficult sen- 
tence seems to be manus non mollivit (is not 
wont to appease) blandior (ulandius) Penates 
sumptuosa hosiia. 

XXIV. 

2. 'Arabs.' 1. 29, 1, note. Their treasures 
are called 'untouched,' because not yet seized 
by Rome. 

3. 'although.' 111. 1, 33, note. 

4. The Apulian sea on the East of Italy, 
and the Etruscan on the West. 

6. 'Necessity' is here almost identical with 
Death. 'The loftiest tops' = the proudest 
heights : the metaphor is probably from a 
lofty building. Comp. I. 35, 18, note. 

8. 'the snares of death.' See Psalm xviii. 5 ; 
but there the phrase means ' the deadly snares 
laid by foes.' 

9. ' Scythians.' 1. 35, 9 ; ^Eschyl. Prom. 
709. The Getae were a Thiacian tribe adja- 
cent to the Dacians. 

12. 'unallotted.' 'Immetata' is anaj- Aey-i- 
ixevou. 'Fruges et Cererem,' is a 'hendiadys' 
for 'fruges Cereris.' 

16. 'iEquali sorte vicarius'= './Equalem 
sortem vicissim suscipiens.' For 'Defunctum 
laboribus' comp. 11. 19, 38. 

18. 'refrains from harming.' This a juetaxns 
for 'does not plan their destruction.' 

21. 'parents.' Those of the wife. Orelli 
seems to take 'parentium' as referring to the 
wife herself. 

25. 'impious.' A usual epithet of civil war. 
11. 1, 30. 

35. 'without morals.' Lit. 'without cus- 
toms,' as forming the standard of national 
morality. Comp. iv. 5, 22, which is a pane- 
gyric of the reforms effected by Augustus. 
The present ode seems indirectly to eulogise 
his intentions. 

37. 'that quarter,' &c. The frigid and 
torrid zones. 1. 22, 17, note. 

41. 'into the Capitol;' to be laid up as 
sacred to Jupiter. 

42. ' that deep disgrace.' Sat. 11. 3, 92 ; 
Eurip. El. 375; Ovid, Amor. 8. 

46. ' invites us.' The pres. is used, as more 
vivid than the fut. 'is sure to invite us.' 



III. 25—29.] 



NOTES. — THE ODES. 



237 



47. 'pearls.' "'lapis' often has this signif. 
when coupled with 'gemma.' Ovid, de medic. 

faciei, 8. 

48. 'vile,' 'inutile:' a 'litotes* for 'per- 
nicious.' 

58. ' gaming ;' which was always looked 
upon by the Romans as a practice extremely 
disgraceful. See Cicero, Catil. 11. 10, 23. 

59. ' broken faith ;' lit. ' treacherous faith.' 
Comp. 1. 18, 16, note. 

60. 'consortem socium'= 'sortis socium :' 
'the partner of his capital.' 

62. ' monstrous buik.' See in. 9, 22, note. 

XXV. 

1. Compare with this ode, n. 19. 

2. 'groves.' ir. 12, 1, note. 

4. 'audiar' is pres. subj. deliberative. 

6. 'to plant among the stars;' to immortal- 
ise. 

8. 'unuttered.' Epist. 1. 19, 32. 

11. 'Thrace.' 1. 18, 9, &c. 'non secus — ut' 
= 'non secus — ac;' so 'seque— ut,' 1. 16, 7. 

16. ' to o'erthrow ;' in the strength of their 
frenzy. Eurip. Bacch. 1109. 

20. ' vineleaves.' iv. 8. 33. 

XXVI. 

1. ' effective soldier,' i. e. so long as my youth 
lasted. 

2. 'my warfare.' Ovid, A m. I. 9, 1, 'Militat 
omnis amans.' 

3. ' now ;' so in Epist. 1. 1, 5. 

5. ' the left.' As the statues looked to- 
wards the South, this would be the East, a 
favourable side. 

7. ' bows,' to frighten the porter. 

10. ' Memphis,' according to Strabo, the 
largest city of Egypt, next to Alexandria. 
' Sithonian ' = Thracian : 1. 18, 9, note. 

XXVII. 

1. The screech-owl is still called parrtizza 
in the dialect of Venice. 

2. ' start ;' meet them at the beginning of 
their journey. 

3. ' Larmvium.' That is, running down into 
the Appian way from the woods about this 
town of Latium. 

7. ' chance to affright ;' the perf. is aoristic. 
Some think that ' mannus ' (a Gallic word) 
means a mule. 

10. 'the bird,' the crow. Virg. Georg. 1. 388. 

11. 'of prophetic note,' 'oscines' (os cano) 
were birds which gave omens by their note ; 
' prsepetes ' by their flight. 

. 13. "tis my wish,' grammatically 'per me' 
is to be understood after ' licet.' 

15. ' magpie.' This is a good omen in 
Plautus, A sin. 11. 1, 12. 

18. 'Orion.' 1. 28, 21, note. 

20. ' what misdeeds,' &c. By causing un- 
expected shipwreck. For Iapyx, see 1. 3, 4, 
note. 

2i. 'our foes.' So Virg. Georg. in. 513. 

27. 'all around her,' 'medias' is rather 
curiously used but appears to mean 'which she 



was in the midst of.' expalluit governs an ace. 
in Epist. 1. 3, 10. 

33. 'hundred towns,' eKaro/u-TroAt?, Iliad, 11. 
649. Epod. 9. 29. 

35. ' Filiae ' is dative of the agent. 

37. 'whence, whither:' the abruptness of 
the double interrogative is suited to the situa- 
tion of the speaker. So Turnus, ALn. x. 670 ; 
and Dido, sEn. iv. 371. 

41. 'the ivory gate,' the passage of false 
dreams. SEn. vn. 894. 

50. 'shrink from.' This use of 'moror' is 
uncommon, unless it should be explained as 
meaning, 'to keep Orcus (Pluto) waiting for 
me.' Comp. ' demoror umbras,' Stat. Theb. 7. 
3 6 4- 

61. 'with points of death.' Others take 
' leto ' as a dat. = for the purpose of inflicting 
death. 

64. 'spinning,' the usual employment of 
slaves. Pensum (pendo) is literally a task al- 
lotted by weight. 

67. As to 'perfidum ridens,' see 11. 12, 14, 
note. 

70. The use of the genitive after 'abstineto' 
is Greek, - direxov rfj<; bpyrjs. iv. 9, 37. 

73. ' Uxor esse nescis' = yvvrj dyvoeis eTi>cu. 

75. ' half the divided world,' Europe and 
Asia only being considered. Soph. Trachtn. 
100. 

76. 'Nomina' is plur. for sing. The idiom 
is common in Latin poetry, and generally con- 
tains the idea of greatness. 

XXVIII. 
2. 'treasured.' 11. 3, 8, note. 

7. ' to pluck down.' in. 21. 7, note. 

8. Bibulus was consul in B.C. 59; so that 
this wine would be about 35 years old. 

10. 'green tresses.' The colours of the sea 
are .often applied to its divinities. So Virg. 
Georg. iv. 388, 'Cseruleus Proteus.' 

14. 'sparkling,' 'fulgentes.' They are called 
'nitentes' in 1. 14, 19. 

15. ' team of swans.' iv. 1, 13. 

16. Night is also spoken of as a deity in 
in. 19, 10. 

XXIX. 

1. 'scion.' 1. 1. 1, note. 

2. 'broached,' lit. 'turned;' to pour the 
wine from the amphora into the bowl. 

6. iEsula was a Roman colony in Latium, 
on the slope between Prasneste and Tibur. 

8. 'Telegonus;' the son of Ulysses and 
Circe, who was said to have killed his father 
by mistake. He was the legendary founder 
of Tusculum. 

10. 'pile,' the house of Maecenas on the 
Esquiline. 

12. 'the smoke.' 'Mirari,' by a kind of 
zeugma, seems to refer properly to ' opes ' 
alone ; yet the smoke and din would both be 
signs of wealth. 

15. 'canopy.' See Sat. 11. 18, 54. 'ex- 
plicuere ' is aoristic. 

17. Cepheus (Andromeda's sire) rises 9th 
July, Procyon on the 15th. The sun enters 
Leo, 20th July. 



2 3 8 



HORACE. 



[III. 30. —IV. 2. 



26. ' the City,' of which Maecenas was Pre- 
fect. For 'Seres,' see 1. 12, 56, note: 'reg- 
nata,' 11. 6, 11, note. 

28. 'Bactria,' now Balkh, a province of Bok- 
hara. ' Tanais' (the Don) is put for the Scy- 
thians, who, it seems, were then in a state of 
dissension, like the Parthians, III. 8, 19. 

33. * regulate,' i. e. 'make the best use of.' 
35. 'the stream;' 'the Tiber.' in. 7, 28, 

note. 

34. 'channel.' One codex reads 'sequore' 
for ' alveo :' but the fact that the former was 
more likely to be altered into the latter, than 
vice versa, is hardly a sufficient reason for 
making the change. 

41. ' master of himself;' = Gr. auTap/c^?, or 
ey/cpa/n}? eavTOV. 

43. ' I have lived. ' The expression is used 
in the same sense by Dido in sEn. iv. 653. 

46. 'overspread.' Perhaps this should be 
considered a zeugma, as 'occupato' does not 
very well suit ' sole puro ;' in this case some 
such word as 'illustrato' must be supplied. 

47. 'shape anew,' 'diffingas.' Comp. 1. 
35, 39, note. 

50. 'game.' II. 1, 3. Dryden's para- 
phrase of this latter part of the ode is certainly 
finer than the original. 

54. 'resign,' lit. 'unseal:' the metaphorical 
signif. is borrowed from the cancelling of a 
covenant. 

57. 'Africus.' Comp. 1. 14, 5, note. 

59. 'to resort to,' so 'descendere in preces,' 
Mn. v. 782. 

64. 'Pollux.' So 'geminus Castor' is used 
by Ovid, Ars Am. 1. 746. 

XXX. 

t. Comp. Ovid, Met. xv. 871. Shakespeare, 
Sonnet 55, 

' Not marble, nor the gilded monuments 
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme.' 

3. 'which.' 'Quod' with the subj. here ex- 
presses the result ; ' ut nequeat. ' 

'raving,' 'sui' is understood: 'void of self- 
control.' Epod. 16. 61. 

7. 'the queen of death:' the root of the 
word is probably the same as that of ' libitum ;' 
so that it would mean literally 'the pleasing 
goddess,' by a euphemism like that of 'Eume- 
nides,' 'the gentle goddesses.' Libitina is 
identified sometimes with Proserpine, some- 
times with Venus ; the latter association is ex- 
plained by the derivation of the word. 

8. 'the Capitol,' /En. ix. 448. The pon- 
tifex maximus is called 'Vesta's priest' by 
Ovid, Fast. in. 699. 

10. To connect 'qua' with 'dicar' would 
greatly narrow the poet's fame. As to the 
Aufidus, see ix. 14, 25; Gen. Int. p. 1. 

11. 'Daunus.' The mythical king repre- 
sents Apulia itself. Comp. 'siticulosse Apulise,' 
Epod. 3. 16. 

12. ' Regnavit' with gen. is Greek constr. 
= rjpt-e A.cuoi>. 

13. 'the first.' See Int. to Epistles. 
15. ' Delphic '='Apollinari,' iv. 2. 9. 



16. Melpomene, usually the Muse of tra- 
gedy, here is the mistress of serious lyric 
poetry. 



BOOK IV. 
I. 






2. 'warfare.' in. 26, 2. 

4. ' Cinara.' See Int. to Odes, p. 22. 

5. Repeated from 1. 19, 1. 

6. 'lustres.' II. 4, 24, note. 

9. By 'in' with ace. is expressed the pass- 
age of the goddess. 

10. Paullus Fabius Maximus, the friend of 
Augustus, and consul B.C. n, would be now 
about 40 ; so that it has been thought that 
this Paullus is his son. But see 1. 1, 41, note. 

'shining swans.' So in sEn. 1. 590, 'lumen 
purpureum.' The almost opposite meanings of 
this word afford a remarkable instance of the 
vague use of words of colour by the ancients. 

'ales.' The epithet is poetically given to 
Venus, though referring, of course, to her 
swans. 

12. 'heart,' lit. 'liver.' So Gr. rJTrap. 1. 13, 
3, note. 

19. 'Alba's meres,' near which, it seems, 
was the villa of Maximus. 

22. 'Berecynthian.' 1. 18, 13, note. 

28. 'Salian. ' I. 36, 12, note. 

31. 'wine.' So Epist. 1. 19, n. 

36. 'fails my tongue.' JEn. iv. 76. 

II. 

2. 'Daedalus.' n. 20, 13, note. 

3. 'Nitens ' is used in a similar sense in /En. 
iv. 252. 

4. 'name.' in. 27, 76, note. 
10. 'dithyrambs.' See in. 25. 
16. 'Chimaera.' I. 27, 24, note. 
18. 'exalted.' I. 1, 6. 

24. 'Orcus.' Lit. 'grudges to yield him to 
Orcus ;' i.e. preserves him from oblivion. 

25. 'swan of Dirce.' Pindar; Dirce was a 
fountain near Thebes. Gray calls Pindar 'the 
Theban eagle,' at the end of his Progress of 
Poesy. 

27. 'Matine.' 1. 28, 3, note. 

28, 'more' refers to natural disposition; 
'modo' to habit. 

35. 'the sacred slope' was probably that 
part of the Sacred Way which is between the 
Forum and the Arch of Titus. 

36. The Sygambri were a German tribe 
between the Rhine and the Lippe. 1 

38. 'Fate.' See Int. to Odes, p. 23. 

40. 'the ages.' Referring to the Great 
Year. See Int. to the Secular Hymn. 

41 'joyous days,' such as the Augustalia, 
instituted B.C. 19. 

49. Triumph is personified, as in Epod. 9. 
21. Some MSS. read 'Tuque,' and all but 
one 'procedis:' but there can be little doubt 
that the reading here given (which was adopt- 
ed by D. Heinsius and Bentley) is right, as 
the address to Augustus would be awkwardly 
abrupt. 



IV. 3~6.] 



NOTES.— THE ODES. 



2 59 



56. He contrasts his own humble means 
with his friend's wealth, as in 11. 17, 32. 'in' 
expresses the purpose. 

59. 'received/ 'duxit.' The white crescent 
is here of course a natural mark ; but the word 
would generally denote a process after birth ; 
= 'contracted/ 

III. 

1. ' Melpomene.' in. 30, 16, note. 

5. 'Achaean ' = ' Olympian,' apparently ; but 
Orelli thinks otherwise. 

6. 'of Delos ' = ' of Apollo : ' see in. 30, 15. 
9. 'to the Capitol;' i.e. as he approaches it 

in triumph. 

12. 'iEolian,' that is 'lyric;' this being 
the dialect in which were composed the writ- 
ings of Alcseus, Sappho, &c. in. 30, 13. 

17. 'golden shell;' the xpvaea. <popfj.L^ of 
Pindar, Pyth. 1. 1. 

18. ' Fieri ' is Gr. vocative. This word is 
seldom used in the singular. Ovid, Fast. iv. 
222. 

21. 'muneris' is a partitive gen., lit. 'This 
, is a portion of thy bounty.' 

24. 'a poet's breath.' Some take 'spiro' 
more literally, as='I live:' but this rendering 
gives no satisfactory meaning, and is much less 
poetical. Comp. 11. 16, 38 ; iv. 6, 29. 

IV. 

1. The apodosis does not begin till 1. 17 : 
* (talem) videre,' &c. This long and elaborate 
sentence is no doubt intended to give the 
subject an imposing dignity and grandeur. For 
the same reason the poet dwells upon the 
description of the Vindelici, the people con- 
quered by Drusus. 

5. 'Erewhile.' Some take 'olim' as signi- 
fying an indefinite point of time ; but 'now, 5 in 
1. 11, seems against such a rendering. 

it. 'serpents.' A struggle between an eagle 
and a serpent is described in Iliad, xn. 200. 

15. 'weaned.' The double ablative is ad- 
mitted, because ' lacte depulsum' conveys only 
a single notion, such as in late Latin would be 
expressed by one word, ' ablactatus.' 

21. ' I stay not.' The perf. perhaps denotes 
an idea formed in past time ; ' I have resolved 
not to inquire.' Comp. a similar use of the 
aorist in Greek. 

24. 'in their turn.' The preceding 'vic- 
trices ' seems strongly in favour of this trans- 
lation: but the word is also explained as = 
'utterly conquered.' It appears to have the 
latter signif. in Cicero pro Sulla 1, and perhaps 
in Lucretius, v. 409. 

29. 'brave and good.' A regular formula. 
Epist. 1. 9, 13. Comp. Greek koAos /ecu. 
dyaOos. 

36. 'minds,' &c. The neuter resembles the 
Greek usage : ra evefrvrj. 

38. 'Metaurus.' This battle, which decided 
the fate of Hannibal's expedition, was fought 
in B.C. 207. 

< 41. ' success.' Lit. 'spelt;' for in primitive 
times the successful warrior was rewarded with 
a present of corn. The word is used literally 
by Plautus, Amph. 1. 1, 43. 



42. 'fiend,' 'dirus,' which properlv = ' that 
which is accursed,' or 'that, which Drfflgs a 
curse,' is a constant epithet of Hanniba- iu 12, 
2, &c. 

45. 'usque' is used in its proper sense of 
'continuously.' The word is not very often 
used (except by Horace) without a preposition. 
See 1. 17, 4; 11. 9, 3. 

49. 'treacherous,' as nations usually call 
their enemies. It is regularly applied to Car- 
thage, and especially to Hannibal. Livy, xxi. 4. 

51. 'perversely,' ultro.' We go so far in 
the wrong direction (ultro) that we not only 
flee from, but even pursue, &c. 

'splendid.' The phrase is formed on the 
analogy of 'spolia opima.' 

53. 'The race.' Comp. Alii. 1. 67. 

57. 'an ilex-tree.' See Gen. Int. p. 8. 

63. 'the Colchians.' Alluding to the dra- 
gon's teeth sown by Jason. Echion was one 
of the earth-born men, and the son-in-law of 
Cadmus the founder of Thebes. 

69. 'messengers.' Like those who poured 
out before the Carthaginian senate three bushels 
of golden rings taken from the Roman knights 
slain at Cannae. 

73. Some have ascribed these lines to the 
poet ; but the compliment is greater from the 
lips of the enemy. 

76. 'points of war.' 'Acuta belli' is like 
'aspera belli,' Livy, xxxin. 11, &c. 

V. 

10. 'Carpathian.' 1. 35, 8, note. 

13. 'with omens;' by endeavouring to dis- 
cover such as are favourable for his return. 

18. 'Prosperity,' ' Faustitas,' anal- Aeyd/ize- 
vov. The word seems to be put for Fausta 
Felicitas, a divinity of the Roman religion. 

22. 'morality.' ill. 24, 35, note. 

25. ' paveat ' is deliberative subj . : the phrase 
is equivalent to 'Quis est qui paveat?' 

28. 'Iberia.' The Cantabri in particular 
are referred to. III. 8, 22, note. 

29. 'passes through the day.' Lit. 'brings 
the day to an end.' Comp. Virg. Eel. 9. 51. 

30.' 'weds.' Epod. 2. 9. 

31.' 'to the second course,' which was the 
principal course. So Virg. Georg. n. 101 speaks 
of the wine of Rhodes as 'welcome to the gods 
and to the second course.' 

32. 'invites.' Virg. uses 'adhibeo' in this 
sense, in ySVz. V. 62. 

35. 'worships,' ' prosequor,' lit. = ' to escort, 
attend upon : ' whence Horace derives this 
secondary meaning.' 

37. 'holidays.' 'ferias' here =' days of 
peace and prosperity.' 

38. 'when the day is all before us,' lit. 
'when the day is entire,' 'integer.' Comp. 
the use of 'solidus' in a slightly different sense 
in I. 1, 20, note. 

39. uvidi = Gr. jSejSpey/xeVoi. 

VI. 

1. 'Niobe.' The story is told in Ovid, 
Met. vi. 155. As to Tityos, comp.lll. 4, 77. 

2. 'felt.' The word is used in a similar 
sense, to express grief and pain, in II. 7, 10. 



240 



HORACE. 



[iv. 7-9. 



4. 'Phthian;' as his soldiers, the Myrmi- 
dons, came from Phthiotis in Thessaly. 

10. 'pine.' The simile is from the Iliad, v. 
560. 

14. 'ill-timed revelling.' /En. 11. 249; in 
which book the story is told in full. 

17. 'the captured.' Other readings are 
'victor* and 'raptor.' Perhaps the word 
actually used by Horace has been lost ; ' gravis' 
= Gr. /3apv?. 

21. 'Venus.' See '/En. 1. 257. 

23. 'ducere,' like eAauVa), denotes the gra- 
dual extension of the line of the wall. 

24. ' omen.' See 1. 15, 5, note. 

26. The Xanthus is probably a river in 
Lycia, sacred to Apollo; not the famous stream 
of Troy. 

27. ' Daunian,' i. e. Apulian, which here = 
Latin, in. 5, 9, note. 

28. 'Agyieus,' ayvteu?. This Greek epi- 
thet is here used, as it seems, purely as an 
ornamental epithet. 

29. 'inspiration,' iv. 3, 24, note. 

30. 'flower.' See Int. to Sec. Hymn. 
35. 'Lesbian.' 1. 1, 34, note. 

39. 'finger,' i.e. the rhythm of the verse, 
as if marked by the motion of the thumb. 
38. ' Noctiluca' = vjKTLkaixirri<;. 

42. ' days.' For the feast lasted three days 
and nights. 

43. ' rendered.' The word here signifies 
the expression of the verses by voice, gesture, 
and dance. Comp. iv. 11, 34. 

VII. 

r. Compare with this ode, 1. 4. 

3. ' mutat vices ' is a phrase like Gr. Svjai> 
I8.lv, &c. Lit. 'changes her variations:' i.e. 
passes through them. 

9. ' treads on the steps.' ' proterit' well ex- 
presses the rapid transition from spring to 
summer in the south of Italy. 

13. ' their losses.' Comp. Catullus 5. 4: 'Soles 
occidere et redire possunt,' &c. 

15. 'father ^Eneas' seems preferable to 
' pious,' as the latter is too strongly contrasted 
with ' rich ' in the same line. ' Wealthy ' is a 
regular poetical epithet of kings. The pass- 
age implies that death will make us equal with 
those who lived so long ago, that they have 
become little more than mythical names. 

16. 'dust and shadow.' Soph. Electr. 1158: 

<JTT086v T6 KCLL CTKtaV. 

20. 'own dear heart.' Comp. Gr. $L\y\ 
\pv X v. 

21. 'august.' Some take the word as = 
'honourable to yourself;' a meaning which 
seems very inappropriate here. 

26. ' Hippolytus :' whose story is the sub- 
ject of the play of this name by Euripides, 
and of the Phedre of Racine. 

VIII. 
1. 'munificently.' For this use of 'corn- 
modus,' comp. in. T9, 12; Epist. n. 1, 226. 
3. ' tripods, ' as in Odyssey, v. 13. 
5. ' works of art.' The word seems to be 



used in this sense in the plural only. Epist. 
1. 6, 17; /En. v. 359. 

6. Parrhasius of Ephesus flourished 400 B.C. ; 
Scopas of Paros about 430 B.C. 

17. The absence of a caesura in this line 
is generally explained by the difficulty of in- 
troducing otherwise the word 'Carthaginis.' 
Yet it might have occurred in the first half 
of a line, if preceded and followed by a mono- 
syllable; or ' Carthago' might have easily been 
used. 

18. 'of him who.' Many ingenious expla- 
nations have been given, to overcome the 
difficulty presented by the fact that it was 
Africanus the younger who actually took Car- 
thage. It seems best on the whole to assume 
that Horace deliberately confused the exploits 
of the two Africani, so as to represent the 
capture of Carthage, the great prize of the 
war, as actually achieved by the patron of 
Ennius. 

20. 'Calabrian.' Those of Ennius, a native 
of Calabria. 

24. 'jealous.' Comp. iv. 2, 24. 

27. 'poets.' Especially Pindar, who often 
extols the merit of iEacus. Isthm. 7. 23. 

' isles of wealth.' Epod. 16. 42. They were 
the naKoipiDV vrjaot. of the Greeks, and were 
supposed to be islands 'lying in the far West ; 
perhaps the Canaries or Madeira. 

29. ' heaven ' = immortality. 'Hercules.' 
See in. 3, 9. 

.31. 'the sons of Tyndarus;' Castor and 
Pollux. 1. 3, 2, note. 

34. 'Liber.' Bacchus himself, according 
to one legend, was a deified mortal, in. 3. 13. 
Comp. in. 25. 20. 

IX. 

1. 'Lest' See 1. 33, 1, note. 

2. 'Aufidus.' Gen. Int. 1. 

3. /by arts.' in. 30, 13, note. 
5. 'Mseonian.' 1. 6, 2, note. 

7. 'Cean.' 11. 1, 38, note. 'Alcaeus.' IT, 
13, 31, note. Statius applies to Stesichorus 
the epithet ' ferox.' 

12. ' the iEolian girl,' Sappho, n. 13, 24. 
15. ' mirata' has not a participial force, but 
is the perf. = 'mirata est.' 

17. 'Cydonian' = Cretan, as in Virg. Ed. 
10. 39. Cydon was a city of Crete. 

18. 'not once.' It seems more poetical to 
take the phrase not literally, but as meaning, 
' not once only has there been a siege like that 
of Troy.' 

26. ' unwept,' 'illacrimabilis ' is also used in 
the active sense. 11. 14, 6. 

29. 'Worth hidden.' Mr Theodore Martin 
compares Measure for Measure, A. 1. S. 2. 
'For if our virtues 
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
As though we had them not.' 

38. 'money.' Comp. 24. 43; Epist. I. 1, 

53- . , 

39. ' consul ' is in apposition with ' animus ; 
you have a mind that is consul, &c. As four 
lines intervene, the metaphor is less startling ; 
'Though literally consul for one year only, 



IV. I0—I4-] 



NOTES. — THE ODES. 



241 



your mind continues to hold the genuine con- 
sulship, in its perfect honesty and integrity.' 
Comp. Epist. 1. 1, 59. 

41. 'judge, 5 in the literal sense : Lollius 
was one of the 'judices selecti.' Sat. 1. 4, 
123, note. Smith, Diet. Antiq. 

43. 'battalions.' The enemies and cor- 
rupters of judicial impartiality and virtue. 

50. * worse,' 'pejus' is here an adverb, 
not an adjective. So in EJ>ist. 1. 17, 30. Lol- 
lius is described as 'the perfect man' of the 
Stoics. Int. to Odes, p. 24. 

X. 

1. 'gifts of Venus.' Scop' 'AcppoSiVijs is used 
in a similar sense, Iliad ill. 54. # 

5. 'shaggy.' Comp. the signif. of 'hispidos' 
in 11. 9, 1. 

7. ' the mind.' The sentiment and language 
closely resemble Terence, Hecyra t I. 1, 17. 

XI. 

4. 'abundance.' So in Cic. Ttisc. Disp. v. 
32, 91 : 'vis auri. ' 

7. 'vervain,' 'verbena' is used to signify 
j any sacred plant. AZn. xii. 120. 

8. This instance (spargier) is the only one of 
the use of the archaic form of the infinitive in j 
the lyric poetry of Horace. 

12. ' through the roof.' In this case 'ver- ! 
tice' is a local abl. Orelli takes it as abl. j 
instr. 'in an eddying stream.' 

16. April (aperio) is the month of Venus, 
as being the season when Nature opens fresh 
, life. But see Paley on Ovid F. 4, 62. 

19. 'tide of years.' See II. 5, 15, note. 

28. 'Bellerophon.' Comp. in. 12, 8. See 
Pindar, 1st A. 7, 60. 

34. 'truly learn.' See ill. 2, 3, note. 
. 35. 'render.' See iv. 16, 43, note. 

XII. 

2. 'Thracian.' I. 25, 12, note. 

6. 'bird,' the swallow, into which Procne 
was transformed, and her sister Philomela into 
a nightingale; Ovid Met. 6, 424; but accord- 
ing to the Greek version, which Virgil, Eel. vi. 
8t, seems to follow, the transformation is vice 

I versa. 

8. 'kings.' Though Tereus only is par- 
ticularly meant, the plur. is used as character- 
ising barbarian kings in general. 

n. 'The god' is Pan. Virg. Georg. I. 16. 
The hills are dusky with pine forests. 

14. ' Cales.' 1, 20, 9, note. 

15. 'client.' This line, and 'thoughts of 
gain,' I. 25, an expression which Horace would 
hardly use of his friend, even in jest, are against 
the idea that the ode is addressed to Virgil 
the poet. Horace would speak of Virgil as 
the friend, not as the client of Maecenas and 
Pollio, nor could they be described as ' youth- 
ful nobles.' Besides, Virgil, who died B.C. 19, 
would hardly be living at the date of this ode. 

18. At the warehouse called the stores of 
Sulpicius Galba, wines, &c, of a choice charac- 
ter were sold. 



19. 'largus donare' is a Greek constr. So 
is 'amara curarum,' = to. Trt/cpa ra>i/ p.epip,jw- 
For 'to wash away,' comp. in. 12, 2. 

26. 'the dark fires' of the funeral pile. 
'Dark' = 'mournful.' 
28. ''tis sweet.' Comp. Epist. 1. 5, 15. 

XIII. 

1. This ode is written in the same manner 
as in. 15, and 1. 25. 

8. 'Keeps his watch.' The phrase seems 
taken from Sophocles, Antig. 782 : 

'Epo)?, 

6? iv fxa\aKai<; Tvapcialq vedvL&os evwxeveis. 

13. 'Coan.' These dresses are generally 
believed to have been of silk ; but the fact that 
they were always nearly transparent seems 
against this notion. Comp. Sat. I. 2, iox. 

14 'pearls.' So in 3, 48: see note. 

15. 'public,' and therefore well known to 
all. 

20. 'surpuerat' is for ' surripuerat,' as 'sur- 
pite' for 'surripite,' in Sat. n. 3, 283. 

22. 'aform.' 'fades' is in apposition with the 
subject of 'habes,' by a kind of poetical confu- 
sion of Lyce herself with her personal beauty, 
'artium' is the gen. of quality. For Cinara, 
see Int. to Odes, p. 22. 

XIV. 

2. By some 'plenis' is taken as governing 
'honorum;' but 'plenis' (amplest) appears to 
mean, 'such as fully reward }^our merits.' 

8. 'Vindelici.' iv. 4, 18. 

10. 'Genauni.' Probably the inhabitants of 
the Valle di Non, and the Breuni of Brunecken, 
or, perhaps-, the Val di Bregna. 

13. ' a single requital.' He inflicted double 
the loss he had sustained. The form is opposed 
to 'pari' and 'mutuavice.' 

20. 'much as.' 'Prope' has been thought 
rather to disparage the exploit of Tiberius : but 
Comp. Sat. II. 3, 268 ; and the use of Gr. 
<rx e ^o v. 

22. 'piercing through the clouds;' i.e. 
'bringing the autumnal rains.' The Pleiades 
rise on the 10th Ocu 'impiger' with infin. is 
Gr. constr., as usual. 

25. 'Aufidus.' See Gen. Int. p. 1. Rivers 
were called horned, probably on account of their 
windings and branching tributaries ; some ex- 
plain the epithet as referring to their violence ; 
others to the roaring of their torrents. Virg. 
Georg. iv. 371 ; Eurip. Ion. 1261 ; Iliad, xxi. 

237- _ . , 

26. Daunian. III. 30, 11, note. 

33. 'you.' This ode (unlike the 4th of this 
book) is so framed as to be a eulogy of Augus- 
tus rather than Tiberius ; perhaps because 
Horace knew that the exploits of Drusus were 
really far superior to those of his brother. 

34. ' For.' The meaning is that Tiberius 
conquered the Vindelici 15 years after Augus- 
tus took Alexandria, (30 B.C.). 'quo die ' would 
literally='on the anniversary of that day;' but 
the words are not used in their exact sense. 
For 'lustre,' see ir. 4, 24, note. 

41. ' Cantabrian.' II. 6. 2, note. 



HOR. 



10 



242 



HORACE. 



[IV. 15. 



44. 'Rome/ Comp. iv. 3, 13. 

45. Lucan says the same of the Nile, x. 294. 

48. 'beluosus,' is the Homeric /xeyaKifrr)?. 
Horace had perhaps heard of whales abounding 
in the Northern sea. 

49. 'Gallia;' as Lucan also says, 1. 454. 

50. 'hardy.' The reference is to the Canta- 
b-rians especially. 

50. 'Sygambri.' iv. 2, 36, note. 

XV. 

1. 'Phoebus.' Virgil says the same of him- 
self; Eel. vi. 3. 

2. 'Tuscan main.' in. 24, 4, note; 1. 1, 14, 
note. 

4. ' Caesar.' With the whole of this passage, 
comp. Sec. Hymn, 53, &c: iv. 5, 17, &c. 

7. 'Parthians.' ill. 5, 5. 'Derepta' pro- 
perly means 'taken by force:' and Horace 
means to suggest that the standards were 
recovered by the might of Augustus, though 
indirectly. 

9. ' Quirine Janus,' lit. Janus of the spear; 



1. 1, 7, note: Janus being regarded as the 
god of battles, whose arcade Augustus thrice 
closed. 

12. These 'ancient virtues' are enumerated 
in Sec. Hymn, 57. 

15. 'Porrecta'='Porrectaest'.' So'Mirata,' 
iv. 9, 15, &c. 

17. 'guardian.' Comp. 111. 14, 14, note. 

20. 'Embroils.' 'inimico' is a form which 
seems to have been first used by Horace. 

22. 'decrees.' Sec. Hymn 55, note. 

29. 'who fulfilled. ' ' Virtute fungi ' is formed 
on the analogy of ' vita fungi,' &c. 

30. 'Lydian.' This epithet is here purely 
ornamental, and must not be pressed ; for 
Plato contrasts the Ionian and Lydian melodies 
with the Dorian and Phrygian, as being un- 
warlike and convivial. So Dryden : 

"Softly sweet, in Lydian measures, 
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures." 

— 'remixto,' lit. mixed again;' i.e. 'perfectly 

blended.' 

32. 'Venus.' Sec. Hyimi 50, note. 



SECULAR HYMN. 



1. 'mistress of the woods.' Comp. 'potens 
Cypri,' 1. 3, 1. 

2. ' shining beauty of the sky.' Virg. Georg. 
I. 5. 'clarissima mundi lumina.' 

5. 'the verses of the Sibyl.' See Introduc- 
tion. 

14. 'Lenis aperire' is a Greek constr. like 
'largus donare,' 11. 12, 19. &c. EiAei0ina 
(Ilithyia) is a quasi participial form=^AyjAu0uta, 
the goddess who comes to succour. The name 
Lucina (the bringer of light, i. e. safety) was 
also applied to Juno. For the option of the 
names, comp. Sat. 11. 6, 20. 

19. 'feraci' agrees with 'lege/ as it is the 
law which is to cause this fruitfulness, though 
indirectly, 'lege marita' is a very concise 
form, and one not elsewhere found. The law 
is the lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus. See 
Smith, Diet. Antiq. The native population of 
Italy had already begun to decrease, as it 
afterwards continued to do to a most ruinous 
extent. 

21. 'years eleven times ten.' See Introduc- 
tion. 

25. 'truly to predict.' A Greek constr. as 
in 1. 14. 

26. 'uttered,' i.e. 'by you.' 

32. 'of Jove,' as the monarch of the sky. 

33. 'with thy shaft laid by.' That is, not 
inflicting any plague on the Roman people. 
Apollo seems to be here regarded as the god 
of sudden death, according to the Greek notion, 
as in the first book of the Iliad. 

38. 'Etruscan shore.' See 1. 2, 14, note 
41. 'unharmed.' 'sine fraude' is used in 

the same sense in II. 19, 19. 

43. 'opened.' The same word (munio) was 

used by the Romans for making a wall and 



making a road ; and indeed the two operations 
were not unlike. See Smith, Diet. Antiq. 
' via.' 
45. 'Ye gods.' Apollo and Diana. 

49. 'white oxen,' as prescribed in the 
Sibylline verses. 

50. 'Venus.' For Augustus professed to be 
her descendant, as the representative of the 
Julian gens, descended from lulus, the son of 
^Eneas. Mn. 1. 288. 

54. 'the Mede' is the Parthian, as usual. 
'Alban'= Roman, as the Romans were said to 
have come from Alba Longa. In the next 
line, the 'replies' are the same as the 'Edicta 
Julia' in iv. 15, 21 ; the conditions of peace 
imposed by Rome. Horace carefully avoids 
throughout the ode all mention of the ill-omened 
civil wars. 

58. 'antique Modesty.' Virgil applies the 
epithet to 'Fides' in the well-known passage at 
the end of JEn. vi. 

61. 'Augur.' 1. 2, 32, note. Apollo is here 
described with three of his attributes; augury, 
music, and medicine. 

67. 'lustre.' See II. 4, 24, note. Orelli 
makes 'felix agree with 'lustrum;' but it 
seems more forcible when taken with Latium, 
and the collocation 'felix alterum in lustrum 'is 
awkward. 

69. 'Algidus.' Comp. 1. 21. 6. As to 'the 
fifteen men,' see Introduction. 

75. 'trained.' Comp. the conclusion of iv. 
6. 

— 'a chorister,' Lit. ' a chorus.' Though 'I, a 
chorus,' would be inadmissible in English, the 
omission of the pronoun in the Latin form 
sufficiently softens the literal incongruity of the 
expression. 



EPODES. 



I. 

i. 'You will go.' For subject of Epode, 
see Introduction to Epodes, p. 89. 

2. 'Liburnian galleys,' i.e. swift light 
vessels used by the Liburnians, a tribe of 
pirates on the Illyrian coast, here contrasted 
with the tall ships having ten banks of oars, 
and carrying towers on them, from which 
Antony's troops fought. Od. 1. 37, 30, note. 

4. 'all your own.' ' Tuo' is ablative case. 
Literally: 'to sustain every danger of Csesar 
by means of your own danger.' 

27. 'change Calabrian for Lucanian pas- 
tures.' In Calabria were plains, in Lucania 
hills, where it was cooler in summer. 

30. ' Circsean : ' for Telegonus, son of Circe, 
was the mythical founder of Tusculum, now 
Frascati, built on a hill. Od. in. 29, 8, note. 

33. 'Chremes,' a miser in a play. See 1. 
Sat. X. 40. 

II. 

10. The elm or poplar were the favourite 
trees to which to wed the vine. The plane- 
tree was a bachelor. Od. 11. 15, 4, note. 

21. 'Priapus' the guardian of gardens. See 
1. Sat. viii. 

22. ' Silvanus' is here confounded with 
* Terminus.' A wood may have been the girdle 
of the farm. 

29. 'season,' 'annus.' See Virg. Eel. in. 
57. JEn. vi. 311. Tib. 1. 1, 19. Odes in. xxin. 
8, note, 'thundering.' Thunder often accom- 
panies rain in southern climates, as in Pales- 
tine. 

41. 'Sabine matron.' The Sabine matron 
was supposed to be the type of simple honesty 
and old religious feeling. Od. in. 6, 38, note. 

49. ' Lucrine fish,' i. e. the oysters for which 
the Lucrine lake near Baise was famous. 

53. ' The African bird :' perhaps the guinea- 
fowl. 

59. 'feast of the god of bounds.' It was 
celebrated at the close of the old year, at the 
end of February, one of the old feasts of Rome, 
when the people, dressed in white, kept religious 
silence round the rustic altar of the god Ter- 
minus, to whom was sacrificed a lamb or pig. 
Ov. Fast. 11. 639. 

69. 'on the Ides.' Interest was calculated 
by the month, and on the Ides, in the middle 
of the month, payment was made. 

III. 

8. For Canidia, see Introduction, p. 91. 

IV. 

1. See Introduction, p. 90, for subject of the 
Epode. 

3. 'Iberian cords/ i.e. made of Spanish 
broom. 



6. 'The Sacred Way' led from the North 
side of the Capitoline Hill to the Flaminian 
gate. _ The Arch of Titus was afterwards built 
over it. It went along the upper end of the 
Forum. Along it walked Horace, as well as 
the conceited military tribune. 

9. 'turn their faces.' Others take it of the 
change of colour in the faces ; so in Sat. n. 8, 
35: but the word 'pallor' gives it this mean- 
ing. 

ir. 'triumvirs' rods.' These triumvirs were 
police magistrates. 

16. 'braving Otho's law.' Perhaps all that 
is meant is, that he broke the spirit of Otho's 
law, who intended the fourteen front rows on 
the floor of the theatre for persons of birth. 

19. 'pirates.' Alluding to the fleet of Sextus 
Pompeius. 

V. 

1. 'But.' The opening is intended to ex- 
press abruptness. 

7. 'my purple stripe;' worn by children of 
free parents. 

21. 'Iolcos and Iberia.' Iolcos, a town of 
Thessaly, and Iberia, part of modern Georgia, 
were famous for poisonous drugs. 

26. 'lake Avernus.' So Virg. /En. iv. 512. 

35. ' bodies poised upon the chin.' That is, 
swimmers. 

43. 'of Ariminum,' an Umbrian town, now 
Rimini, at the mouth of the Marocchia. 

58. 'dogs of Subura.' That part of Rome 
between the Esquiline and Viminal hills, 
populous, and of low repute. 

76. 'Marsian enchantments,' the Marsian 
witches were famous. 

86. 'Thyestean curse,' such as Thyestes 
might have poured forth, after the Thyestean 
banquet, against Atreus. 

87. 'Magic drugs, &c.' Many renderings 
have been given of this passage ; which of 
them is right, must be uncertain. Some have 
taken 'magnum' as an interjection, and others 
'humanam vicem' as 'after human fashion.' 

100. 'birds of the Esquiline.' _ On this spot 
criminals were executed, and their bodies torn 
by vultures. Compare the description in Sat. 
1. VIII. 

VI. 

1. An Epode after the spirit of Archilo- 
chus. 

5. ' Molossian hounds or dogs of Sparta's 
breed.' So Virg. Georg. in. 405, unites the 
two kinds together. 

13. ■ like him rejected ;' the famous Archilo- 
chus of Paros, whence satires are called Parian 
Iambics. See Ep. I. 19. 25, and Ars Poet. 
79, and Introd. to Epodes, p. 89. 

14. 'fierce foe,' Hipponax of Ephesus, about 
B.C. 540. Bupalus was a sculptor, who repre- 
sented Hipponax's ugly face. 



l6 — 2 



244 



HORACE. 



[7—i7. 



VII. 

1. See Introd. to Epodes, p. 89. 

8. 'Sacred Slope,' i.e. that part of the 
Sacred Way or Street which sloped down from 
the Capitol. 

12. 'not against their own kind.' Compare 
Ariosto, Orl. Fur. Canto v. Stanz. I. 

19. 'innocent Remus:' on the other hand, 
in Virg. JE11. i. 292, the union of Quirinus with 
his brother Remus is a sign of peace and pros- 
perity to the empire. 

IX. 

4. 'O blest Maecenas.' Probably, simply= 
'blest by Heaven;' rather than 'glad at the 
news,' or 'wealthy,' or 'happy in wealth.' 

6. 'Phrygian.' In the original 'barbarian.' 
Od. 11. 4, 9, note. 

7. 'Neptune's son,' in satiric allusion to his 
beast of being Neptune's son. ' of late,' about 
5 or 6 years ago. 

'straits' of Sicily. 

12. 'sold into slavery.' In the Latin 'eman- 
cipated ;' but the English word is used in the 
opposite sense ; for here it means, ' passed by 
sale from one master to another.' 

'a woman,' Cleopatra. Compare Ode 1. 

37. 3 2 - 

17. 'Then to our side.' Here the MSS. 
vary. Some take it ' But chafing at this, the 
Gauls,' &c. 

23. 'so great a captain,' i.e. Marius. 
25. 'Africanus,' the younger. 

35. ' qualmish sickness. ' So Athenaeus says 
that the Cascuban wine was a good tonic. 

X. 

2. ' Masvius ' is thought to be the bad poet 
whom Virgil disliked. Eclog. 3. 90. Horace 
wishes a good voyage to good poets, Od. 1. 3 ; 
a bad voyage to bad poets. 

14. ' impious Ajax,' because he profaned the 
temple of Pallas. 

24. 'to the Tempests.' Cicero says that 
Roman admirals, before sailing, offered a victim 
to the waves. 

XI. 
An epode probably taken from the Greek, 
and not unlike some of Petrarch's sonnets. 

XIII. 

6. 'in my natal year.' See Od, III. 21, 1. 
a.u.c. 689, B.C. 65, on the 8th of December. 

7. 'the god.' Sometimes the ancients 
spoke of no particular god, but of God in a 
higher and truer strain. 

8. 'Achaemenian,' i.e. Persian. Od. 11. 12, 
21, note. 

11. 'tall pupil.' But it may mean 'great,' 
that is, destined to be great when a man. 

13. 'land of Assaracus,' Troy, of which 
Assaracus was a king. Virg. ALn. 1. 284. 

16. 'azure mother,' Thetis, the goddess of 
the azure sea. 

XIV. 

7. 'the iambics I began.' Some think the 
book of Epodes is meant ; but Doering is pro- 






bably right in thinking the words refer to a par- 
ticular ode or epode. 

13. 'You yourself are burning.' Terentia 
probably is meant, the wife of Maecenas, who 
tormented him with other flames besides those 
of love, divorced h>y him and again taken back, 
so that it was said he was married often, but 
had only one wife. Od. 11. 12, 13, note. 

XV. 

15. 'in Flaccus,' Only twice has Horace 
so called himself; here, and in 2nd Sat. 1. 18 
Dacier and Walckenaer think that here there 
is a play on the word ' Flaccus,' which means 
' weak. ' 

20. 'Pactolus may flow with gold.' The 
golden rivers were Pactolus, Hebrus, Ganges, 
Tagus. 

21. ' mysteries of Pythagoras,' touching the 
transmigration of souls. 

22. ' Nireus.' The beautiful poltroon of the 
Iliad. 

XVI. 

1. 'a second age' or generation, the first 
one being that of Sulla. 

3. 'Marsians.' This refers to the social or 
Marsian war, B.C. 90 — 88. 

5. 'Capua,' which aimed to be the capital 
of Italy after the battle of Cannae. See Livy, 
xxiii. 6. 

' Spartacus,' captain of slaves and gladiators. 
B.C. 73. 

6. 'Allobroges' refers to the conspiracy of 
Catiline, B.C. 62. 

7. 'Germany,' refers to the Cimoric war, 
B.C. 101. 

13, 'bones of Quirinus.' Quirinus was a 
god in heaven ; but the legends of Rome and 
Greece are always inconsistent. 

17. 'Phocaea's people.' The oath of the 
people of this Ionian city is given by Hero- 
dotus, 1. c. 165. They founded Marseilles, Maeo- 
naca in Spain, Aleria in Corsica. 

28. 'Matinum's peaks.' Mountain in Ca- 
labria, near the end of Italy, now called 
'Maro.' 

41. 'that wanders round the world.' Pro- 
bably the idea is taken from the old notion of 
the Ocean flowing round the earth. 

46. 'its proper tree.' There is no need of 
the trouble of grafting in these happy isles. 

52. 'deep soil,' i.e. a rich soil. Others take 
it as ' mountainous ;' or it may be the soil ' with 
tall grass.' Others again join the epithet 
closely to the^ verb, as if the ground rose with 
the snakes rising from the ground. 

66. Sertorius, as Plutarch says, had such a 
desire to flee away and be at rest in these 
happy isles. 

XVII. 

7. 'your rapid wheel.' The sorceresses' 
wheel was called rhombos. Yonge inclines to 
take the word ' citus ' as a participle, and join 
it with 'retro,' 'whirled back;' and compares 
Epod. 9. 20. 

8. _ 'grandson of Nereus.' Achilles, son of 
Thetis, daughter of Nereus. Achilles first 



I- I-3-] 



NO TES. — THE SA TIRES. 



245 



wounded, and then cured Telephus, king of 
| Mysia. 

29. ' Sabine,' 'Marsian.' The women of 
I these countries were famous as witches. 

32. 'blood of Nessus.' The subject of the 
Trachiuice of Sophocles. 

35. 'Colchian.' The enchantress Medea 
was a Colchian. 

41. ' shall you move among the stars.' Like 
Ariadne. 

m 44. 'the bard,' Stesichorus, whose recanta- 
tion was famous. 

48. 'on the ninth day,' the day on which 
the ashes of the dead were buried. Nine was 
a holy number in connection with the spirits of 
the departed. 

56. ' the mysteries of Cotytto,' of Thracian 



origin, celebrated by priests called Baptae, at 
night, introduced into Athens. J iv. n. 91. 

58. 'Esquiline Hill.' See above, Ep. v. 
100, and 1 Sat. vni. 

60. 'Pelignian hags,' to be ranked with 
Sabine and Marsian. 

71. 'Noric sword.' An epithet from a 
country or place so common in the later writ- 
ings of Horace. Noricum, now Carinthia, 
Styria, and part of Bavaria, was famous fcr its 
steel. So Ode 1. 16, 9. 

74. 'mounted on your hated shoulders;' 
like the old man in the story of Sinbad the 
sailor. 

76^ 'images of wax.' The same belief is 
mentioned in Theocritus, Virgil, Ovid. See 
also 1. Sat. vni. 30. 



SATIRES. 



BOOK I. 

I. 

10. The great men of Rome must have had 
their slumbers broken very early by the visits 
of their clients. It was almost as bad, says 
Cicero jesting, as the trumpet in the camp in 
morning. 

14. ' Fabius,' a native of Gaul, who wrote 
several books on the Stoic philosophy, probably 
long-winded. Horace was very intolerant of 
bores. 

58. ' Aufidus,' ' Ofanto,' called by Horace 
the 'roaring,' 'violent,' 'impetuous,' 'bull- 
shaped.' It was near a southern tributary of 
it that Horace was born. 

77. 'your slaves.' This was one of the 
troubles of the men of old days. 

95. 'it is a short story.' Horace's stories 
are usually short : he is afraid of being a bore. 

102. 'Nomentanus.' Sallust the historian 
hired his cook for 100,000 sesterces. 

' 106. 'a mean.' Aristotle's golden mean, 
which recommended itself to Horace's common 
sense. 

108. 'how that no miser.' Probably the 
'ne* is to be omitted, though the hiatus is not 
common. 

120. 'blear-eyed Crispinus.' Blear-eyed 
was Horace ; but not a bore, nor a Stoic prig, 
like Crispinus. 

II 

i. 'guilds of singing girls,' literally, 'col- 
leges.' Any body of men legally united were 
a college among the ancients. From this, the 
early fathers of the Church spoke of the college 
of the Apostles. The singing girls were Syrian 
girls who came to Rome. 

2. 'buffoons,' who stuck like mud to the 
rich. 

3, 'Tigellius.' Cicero and Calvus the poet 



disliked him; the two Caesars and Cleopatra 
liked him. 

14. ' Sixty per cent.' Five per cent, by the 
month, five times as much as was usual, which 
interest was deducted from the principal, as 
discount, when the money was lent. 

16. 'bonds of minors.' The 'toga virilis' 
was put on at the age of seventeen. The 
money-lender ran a risk, and so required ex- 
orbitant interest ; for the Roman law wisely 
made such contracts absolutely invalid. 

20. 'the father in the play.' Menedemus 
in the play of the self- tormentor, by Terence. 

III. 

3. 'child of Sardinia.' Sardinians, like 
Cretans, Cilicians, Cappadocians, Mysians, 
Phrygians, Nazarenes, had a bad name ; one 
was worse than another: the slaves were 
worthless ; poisonous and bitter were its herbs ; 
a Sardonic smile was a grin or sneer. 

4. ' Csesar,' Augustus. 'His father,' Julius. 

7. 'Io Bacche.' A convivial song. 

8. In Virg. JEn. vi. 646, we have the 
heptachord ; but here the tetrachord. 

25. 'your own failings.' But others read 
'male lippus,' 'wretchedly blear-eyed.' 

27. 'Epidaurian serpent.' There were ser- 
pents at Epidaurus, sacred to iEsculapius, after- 
wards worshipped at Rome. 

47. 'Sisyphus.' Antony's dwarf, two feet 
high, as cunning as Sisyphus the man of craft. 

''Varus,' 'Scaurus.* Cognomens of families 
at Rome, originally given, as such names often 
were, for bodily peculiarities. 

57. 'a poor creature.' But it is not unlikely 
that the word 'demissus' is in a good sense, as 
in Cicero: then translate: 'there lives among 
us an honest, modest man; we call him slow 
and dull.' 

64. ' have thrust myself on you.' Again he 
fears he may be a bore. 



246 



HORACE, 



P. 4, 5. 



73. 'lumps' and 'warts' answer to the 'beam* 
and 'mote.' 

77. 'who are no philosophers.' A cut at the 
Stoics. 

78. 'right reason/ the rule of the Stoic. 

82. 'Labeo.' It is not known who this 
Labeo was. 

83. 'how much more outrageous.' Keightley 
well says : ' What an idea this comparison gives 
of Roman barbarity to slaves.' 

87. 'black Calends/ day of the exacting of 
payment. 

89. 'wearying histories.' So the poor Italian 
in the story preferred the galleys to having to 
read the history of Guicciardini. 

91. 'old Evander/ mythical king of Italy, 
iEueas' host in the vin. JEneid: but the 
scholiast, followed by Doering, understands 
the passage as speaking of a dish made by 
Evander, a famous carver, brought by Antony 
to Rome from Alexandria. 

96. 'Those who hold all sins equal/ i.e. the 
Stoics, the pedants of antiquity, the foes of 
common sense, and of kindly feeling. 

98. ' expediency itself.' This is the Epicu- 
rean doctrine ; but Horace with his usual good 
sense qualifies the assertion by the word 
'nearly.' 

99. The Epicurean account of the origin of 
the world. 

in. 'That laws were introduced, &c.' 
The opposite view was that of the Stoics, 
namely, that law was anterior to wrong. 
Compare St Paul, Epistle to the Romans, 
vii. 8. 

123. 'With royal power/ The allusion is 
to the assertion of the Stoics, that the philo- 
sopher is the genuine king. 

127. 'father Chrysippus/ the glory of the 
school of Stoics, whose fame eclipsed that of 
the founder, Cleanthes. He was born B.C. 
280. 

IV. 

1. Eupolis, Cratinus, Aristophanes, of the 
old comedy, answer to iEschylus, Sophocles, 
Euripides in tragedy. 

7. 'He has changed only the feet.' Lucilius 
wrote chiefly in hexameter verse. 

21. 'Fannius' Quadratus. It seems as if 
he had taken his works and bust to the public 
library. He was a lengthy and silly poet. 

28. 'Albius.' Not the poet Tibullus. 

60. 'after that Discord grim.' Lines taken 
from Ennius. 

63. ' on some other occasion I will enquire.' 
Either Horace never kept his promise, or his 
enquiry has not come down to us. 

70. ' Caprius and Sulcius ;' two lawyers and 
informers. 

71. 'columns.' The booksellers put their 
books in stalls in the porticos. 

72. ' For Hermogenes Tigellius/ see Sat. 
II. 3. Sat. in. 4. 

86. ^ 'four on each couch.' In the party 
described in Sat. Book 11. vin., there were 
only three on each couch. Cicero says the 
Greeks crowded their parties. 



94. 'Capitolinus.' This cognomen of a fa- 
mily of the Petilian gens was in this case very- 
appropriate ; as this man was said to have stolen 
the crown from the image of Jupiter in the 
Capitol. 

105. 'my good father.' This is the first 
mention of him. 

123. 'select judges,' a certain number, 360 
men, chosen yearly by the Praetor of the city 
to be jurymen to try criminal cases. Here 
they are regarded as models of respectability. 

132. 'advancing years.' Horace was pro- 
bably about 35 years old at this time. 

134. 'arcade/ or portico, where he took his 
walk. 

143. 'like the Jews.' See St. Matt. xxm. 
15. Compare treatise of Danz (Jena, 1688) on 
the zeal of the Jews in making proselytes. 



_ This satire is said to be imitated from a 
similar poem of Lucilius. The journey seems 
to be that of Maecenas in the year B.C. 37, 
when Antony went to Brundusium, and then, 
not being allowed to land, went on to Taren- 
tum. 

I. ' Aricia/ now La Riccia, sixteen miles 
from Rome. 

3. 'Forum Appii.' Here came St. Paul, a 
traveller of a very different kind. Acts xxvui. 
15. 

9. 'and now night &c.' A mock heroic 
passage, very likely from some old writer. 

II. 'boatmen.' The canal is mentioned by 
Strabo as running parallel to the Appian road, 
and often used by passengers by night. 

16. 'a passenger/ or a traveller along the 
tow-path. 

23. 'fourth hour,' i.e. about nine o'clock in 
the morning. 

24. 'Feronia.' She was the goddess of 
enfranchised slaves. 

26. 'Anxur/ now Terracina. It was for- 
merly a bathing-place, resorted to in summer. 

34. ' Fundi,' now ' Fondi.' Here the ancient 
appearance of the Appian road, composed of 
large flag-stones, was seen by Eustace. See 
Eustace's Classical Tour, Vol. 11. p. 138. 

' praetorship. ' Mock Roman style. 

36\ ' praetexta/ i.e. toga, with purple border. 
' Laticlave/ ' broad purple stripe.' 'Pan of live 
coals/ probably used for sacrifice. 

37. 'In the city of the Mamurra family/ i.e. 
Formiae, now Mola-di-Gaeta. The place is 
famous for the supposed remains of the villa 
and tomb of Cicero. 

40. 'Plotius, Virgil, and'Varius.' These 
two, here and in 1 Sat. X. 81, joined with 
Virgil, revised his JEneid after his death. 

45. ' Campanian bridge/ over the river Savo. 

46. 'purveyors/ appointed by the govern- 
ment to furnish those travelling on public 
business at a certain rate. 

54. 'stock of the Osci/ i.e. one of the 
common people of the country. 

55. 'his mistress still lives/ i.e. he was a 
runaway slave. 



I. 6- 9 .] 



NOTES.— THE SATIRES. 



247 



71. ' Beneventum ' claimed Diomede for its 
founder; it has been under Roman, Gothic, 
Greek, Lombard, Norman, Papal, and Italian 
rule. 

78. 'Altino,' Atabalus, which blew from the 
east. 

87. 'a little town with a name, &c.' Sup- 
posed to be Equotutium, or Equotuticum. 

91. 'Canusium,' now Canosa, on the Aufi- 
dus, where Greek and Oscan were spoken. It 
stood south-west of Cannse. 

97. 'Barium, 5 now Bari. on a rocky peninsula. 

'Egnatia, built when the Nymphs were 
angry ;' because the water there was so bad. 

100. ' Apella,' a common name for freedmen, 
to which class so many Jews belonged. Acts of 
Ap. vi. 9. Tacitus, Ann. 11. ch. 85, says it was 
proposed in the senate that 4000 freedmen of 
the Jewish religion should be banished. Philo 
mentions that they dwelt on the other side of 
the Tiber, and most of them were freedmen. 

104. ' Brundusium,' 'Brindisi ;' here Virgil 
died. The town seems now likely to recover 
its former importance. 

VI. 

1. 'Lydian Etruria,' from the supposed 
Lydian settlement in Etruria, mentioned by 
Herodotus, and alluded to by Virgil. 

9. ' Servius' Tullius, according to the legend, 
the son of a slave. 

20. • 'Decius,' who devoted himself at the 
battle of Vesuvius. Juvenal, too, speaks of the 
plebeian origin of this noble soul. 

21. 'the censor Appius,' the model censor 
of b. c. 312. 

27. 'four black straps,' which went up the 
high shoe of the senators. 

39. ' Cadmus,' said to have been the public 
executioner. 

41. 'Paullus or Messala' as we might say, 
a Howard, or Percy. 

59. ' Saturium,' near Tarentum in Calabria. 

75. 'The Ides of eight months in the year.' 
So Yonge, Hermann, and Keightley. There 
would be four months holidays in the heat of 
summer. 

79. 'so far as would be observed.' But 
others take it, 'as was proper in a populous 
city.' 

86. 'as auctioneer or collector like himself.' 
This passage is referred to at the beginning of 
the life of Horace by Suetonius. 

104. 'dumpy mule.' Others translate 'crop- 
tailed.' 

120. 'Marsyas,' whose statue was in the 
Forum. 

121. 'Novius,' a fraudulent usurer. 

VII. 

1. Supposed to be the earliest of the extant 
poems of Horace. If so, Horace improved 
greatly. 

'on the proscription list' of the triumvirs. 

2. 'Hybrid,' as having an Asiatic father, 
and Roman mother. 

5. 'Clazomenas,' one of the twelve Ionian 



cities, famous as the place where Anaxagoras 
was born. 

16. 'Diomede and Lycian Glaucus/ taken 
from Iliad, vi. 

18. 'Brutus was praetor.' He was not so 
formally, as he was acting in defiance of the 
senate. 

19. 'Province of Asia,' of which Ephesus 
was capital, said by Cicero, too, to be the 
richest of the provinces. 

20. 'Bacchius — with Bithus,' two gladia- 
tors. 

28. 'The man of Praeneste.' Rupilius Rex. 

31. 'cuckoo.' The joke is said to be taken 
from the 'cuckoo' having come, and the vine- 
dresser not having yet pruned his vines, and 
so behind-hand. 

32. 'a Greek.' Thus he was sharp as a 
Greek, with Italian vinegar as well. 

VIII. 

1. 'stem of a fig-tree.' The wood of the fig- 
tree was considered very poor. 

8. 'narrow cells.' The little rooms of the 
slaves, like cells in convents. 

14. 'Esquiline hill,' separated from the 
Viminal by the Subura. On it were the baths- 
of Titus, and the temple of Minerva Medica, 
Near the house of Maecenas, from which Nero- 
beheld the burning of Rome, Virgil is said to 
have had a house. 

15. 'terrace,' raised, as a bulwark, by 
Servius Tullius. 

25. 'the elder Sagana:' probably she had a 
younger sister. 

29. 'the ghosts,' deified by the Roman 
belief, as Manes (mansuetus), or good spirits, 
like our 'good folk,' in hopes of propitiating 
them. 

50. 'enchanted bonds,' called by the Romans 
' licia ;' i. e. threads of different colours, having 
a loop. 

IX. 

1. 'The Sacred Street.' This famous street 
extended from the valley beneath the Esquiline 
hill, by one side of the Forum to the ascent up 
to the Capitol. The arch of Titus was after- 
wards built across it. 

18. 'Caesar's gardens,' bequeathed to the 
Roman people by Julius Caesar. 

25. 'Hermogenes.' See 1. Sat. in. 129. 

35. 'Vesta's temple,' to the west of the 
Palatine hill, not far from the Tiber. 

60. ' Fuscus Aristius/ to whom is addressed 
the 22nd Ode of 1st book, one of Horace's 
literary friends, an excellent man, fond of a 
town life, perhaps too fond of money also. 

69. 'the thirtieth sabbath;' a well-known 
difficulty. Perhaps Aristius Fuscus has caused 
us this difficulty, by wittily inventing this 
thirtieth sabbath for the occasion. 

76. ' I give my ear to be touched ;' by which 
Horace promised to be a witness, when called 
upon, and so escaped for the present. 

78. 'Apollo,' an allusion to Homer; but, 
besides that, Horace was a poet, and so Apollo 
was his patron. 



243 



HORACE. 



[I. io— II. 3. 



The first eight lines, not noticed by the 
scholiasts, but found in some MSS., though 
not_ written by Horace himself, are probably 
ancient. 

1. 'Yes, I did say ;' i. e. in the fourth Satire, 
which evidently bad been censured. 

6. 'Laberius' farces.' He was a Roman 
knight, who wrote mimes or farces. A pro- 
logue by him is still extant. 

18. 'that monkey;' supposed to be the 
Demetrius of w. 79 and 90. 

19. ' Calvus,' a contemporary of Cicero ; he 
was an orator as well as poet. 'Catullus.' 
This is the only passage in Horace where 
Catullus is mentioned. See Int. to Epistles, 
p. 161. 

26. ' Petillus.' See Sat. I. 4, 94. 

28. ' Pedius ' was adopted by the nephew of 
Julius Caesar. 

29. ' Corvinus' Messala, praised by Horace, 
Tibullus (whose patron he was), Valleius 
Paterculus, Quintilian, Pliny, Seneca, Tacitus. 
His writings, famous for their latinity, are 
lost. He was Horace's friend in Brutus' army. 
He was a warrior as well as orator, and retained 
his republican frankness. 

30. 'mongrel talk,' Oscan and Greek. 

36. 'Alpinus.' Furius is so called, because, 
besides murdering Memnon, and muddying 
the Rhine, he made Jupiter spew over the Alps. 
See 11. Sat. v. 40. 

38. 'Tarpa,' who licensed plays. ^ 

43. On 'Pollio,' general, historian, trage- 
dian, orator, senator, see 11. Odes, I, 14, note. 

44. 'Varius.'' Horace's friend, mentioned 
with Virgil, author of a tragedy called Medea, 
and of a poem on Death. 

45. 'Virgil's gift.' It would clearly seem 
that the JEneid was not then published ; and, 
perhaps, not the Oeorgics. 

46. ' Varro Atacinus' was a poet not much 
older than Horace, called Atacinus, from the 
river Atax in Gaul, now theAude. 

48, 'inventor,' i.e. Lucilius. 

53. 'Accius,' a tragic poet born B.c 170, 
whose poems, taken from the Greek, are often 
quoted by Cicero. 

66. 'kind of poetry untouched by the 
Greeks;' i.e. satire. 

6j. ' earlier poets ;' Livius, Naevius, Ennius, 
Accius, Pacuvius. 

75. ' in common schools,' like the poems of 
Livius, which got Horace many a whipping. 
Horace, in spite of his wish, has been used in 
many a school, common, and good too. 

82. ' Octavius ;' not, of course, Augustus. 
The present passage is remarkable, as mention- 
ing so many friends of the poet, who associated 
with the leading men of his age. 

BOOK II. 
I. 

This satire is imitated by Pope. 
4. ' Trebatius ' Testa, the friend of Cicero, 
to whom Cicero wrote letters, and addressed 



his Topics. He was younger than Cicero, 
older than Horace, a man of a quiet spirit. 

17. ' Scipio ' the younger. Lucilius served 
under him in the Numantian war. 

35. 'Venusia,' now Venosa. It was made 
a colony in B.C. 291. 

36. ' Samnites,' in the original Sabines, but 
the Samnites were of Sabine origin. 

47. ' Cervius ;' no doubt an informer. 
63. ' Lselius,' the friend of Scipio, so well 
known as a speaker in Cicero. 

66. 'a title fairly won.' That of Africanus. 

67. ' Metellus' Macedonicus, a political op- 
ponent of Scipio. 

75. 'station.' The original word includes 
also 'wealth.' 

81. 'sacred laws.' The xii tables. 

86. 'The prosecution,' &c. Lit. "The tab- 
lets (on which the 'judices' recorded their 
votes) will be broken up by laughter." The 
word 'solventur' refers rather to the opinion of 
the 'judices,' than to the actual tabulae. This 
seems the best explanation of a difficult pas- 
sage. ' Risu ' is abl. instr. 

II. 

ir. Grecian fashions;' as the ball, or the 
quoit. 

22. 'lagois,' whether bird or fish, seems 
to be so called from having a taste like a 
hare. 

32. 'among the bridges;' between the Fa- 
brician bridge and the Sublician. 

38. 'a hungry stomach seldom,' &c. Some 
take it 'a stomach not often hungry.' 

44. 'elecampane,' a plant whose root had 
a pungent taste, and was of much repute as a 
stomachic. 

47. ' Galionius,' the auctioneer mentioned 
in Lucilius, who spent all his money on this 
sturgeon, and other fish, and yet never dined 
well in his life. 

50. ' a would-be praetor ;' Asinius, or Sem- 
pronius Rufus, who was rejected when he 
stood for the prsetorship. So, a wag said,- the 
people had avenged the death of the storks on 
which he had dined. 

68. ' easy-natured;' or it may be so ' simple,' 
as to forget the decencies of life. 

92. ' Oh that the early world,' &c. Again, 
as so often, in the mock-heroic style. 

97. ' angry is your uncle,' whom the ancients 
regarded as severe and harsh. 

114. 'allotted farm,' i.e. measured out by 
the surveyor for the veteran to whom it had 
been granted. 

122. 'dried figs,' i.e. split, and laid on each 
other. Gargallo translates the words 'nchi 
appassiti a coppia.' 

x 33- 'Umbrenus.' Compare Virg. Eclogues 
1. and 9. The confiscation probably took place 
after the battle of Philippi, B.C. 42. 

III. 

This is far the longest and most systematic 
of the Satires of Horace. From it we learn 
much about Horace himself. 



II. 4 .] 



NOTES.— THE SATIRES. 



249 



5. 'refuge here;' at your quiet farm, a 
proper place for study. 

8. * innocent wall.' The thumped wall is 
personified. 

11. 'Plato.' Some think the philosopher, 
others the comic poet classed with Menander, 
Eupolis, Archilochus, whose writings might 
help Horace in his Satires. 

13. 'envy ;' the jealousy entertained for the 
successful poet. 

17. 'with a barber;' for he had grown a 
philosophic beard. 

18. 'middle Janus ;' the central of the three 
arcades on the north side of the Forum; or, 

"perhaps, the space between them. 

21. ' Sisyphus,' founder of Corinth, ' the 
most crafty of men.' Vessels of Corinthian 
bronze were famous. 

25. 'god of gain,' Mercury. Mercurial in 
English has a different sense from that here. 
So 'Jovial ' in Shakespeare, Cymbeline, A. IV. 
Sc. 2, where ' Mercurial ' also is used literally. 

33. 'Steninius.' A stoic professor of that 
day. 

36. The ' Fabrician bridge ' crossed the Tiber 
at the island to the west of the Capitol. 

53. 'with his own tail hanging;' like wear- 
ing a fool's cap, as Keightley says. 

60. ' Fufius' was an actor, who played the 
part of Ilione in the tragedy of Pacuvius. Being 
drunk, he fell asleep, and Catienus, the other 
actor, could not waken him, though he shouted 
. as if he were 200,000 men. Some, as Keightley, 
the Delphin editor, and Doering, take it as 
1200. Perhaps the shouts were from the people. 

69. 'Nerius,' an usurer. 'Cicuta,' another 
usurer. 

72. 'he will laugh immoderately.' So Shil- 
leto takes it. Literally 'with other peoples' 
jaws.' In Homer, (Od. xx. 347,) the same 
expression means 'unnatural laughter.' Thus 
Virgil translates Homer's ' crowning cups with 
wine' into 'crowning them with chaplets.' 

77. 'arrange your toga/ i.e. listen com- 
posedly to my lecture. 

83. 'Anticyra,' island in the Maliac gulf, 
where hellebore, given by the ancients for 
melancholy, grew abundantly. 

86. 'Arrius/ a vulgar man, who gave a 
grand entertainment. Arrius in Catullus put in 
the letter 'h' out of place. 

100. 'Aristippus,' the founder of the Cyre- 
naic sect. As the Cynics were an exaggerated 
form of Stoicism, so was the Cyrenaic sect of 
the Epicurean school. 

14.U 'calling one a Fury.' See Eurip. 
Orestes, 264. 'his magnificent anger;' but some 
say the word is used medically ' to express the 
bright colour of the bile when disordered.' 
But compare 'splendide mendax,' Ode ill. 11, 

35 * 

143. 'wine of Veii, ' a very poor sort of wine. 

161. 'Craterus/ an eminent physician, who 
once attended Atticus' daughter. 

169. 'ancestral fortune;' but Macleane and 
others explain the words as 'according to the 
standard of ancient times.' 

181. 'outlawed and accursed.' Like 'Ana- 



thema.' Literally, 'one who could not make a 
will, and one devoted to the infernal gods.' 

182. 'vetches, beans and lupines;' pulse 
distributed to the people by the Aediles. 

185. 'Agrippa,' who in his aedileship was 
very munificent. 

217. 'would not the prsetor interfere ;' i. e. 
by an interdict, according to the law of the 
XII Tables. The prsetor named the person 
who was to be committee (curator) to the insane 
man. Efiist. 1. 1, 102, note. 

223. 'Bellona.' On the 'day of blood,' the 
24th of March, the priests of Bellona in their 
frenzy cut themselves with knives, till the blood 
gushed out. The day is omitted in Ovid's 
Fasti. 

228. 'Tuscan street;' street to the south of 
the Forum. 

_ 229. 'Velabrum,' full of shops, near the 
river, once a swamp, lay to the north-west of 
Circus Maximus, and to the south-west of the 
Forum, between the Aventine and the Ca- 
pitol. 

239. 'the son of iEsop;' i.e. Clodius, the 
son of the famous actor. 

254. ' Polemo,' who was converted by Xeno- 
crates, the head of the Academic school after 
Speusippus. 

260. 'And he deliberates.' This passage is 
taken from the first scene of the Eunuchtis of 
Terence. 

265. ' the slave,' Parmeno. 

272. 'Picenian fruit.' See below, Sat. 11. 
4, 70. 

275. 'add blood to folly,' &c. i.e. 'add 
bloodshed to your mad passion ; and make bad 
worse ;' taken from a saying of Pythagoras, r to 
stir the fire with the sword.' 

277. 'Marius and Hellas;' persons now 
unknown. 

280. 'cognate terms;' words differing in 
form, the same in meaning. 

281. ' where streets meet ;' where the statues 
of the Lares stood. 

304. ' unhappy son,' Pentheus. See Eurip. 
Bacch., Ovid. Met. in. 700. 

309. 'about two feet.' See Efiist. 1. 20, 24. 

322. 'your dreadful temper.' See EJ>. l 
20, 25. 

IV. 

2. 'by my method ;' memoria technica. 

3. 'him whom Anytus prosecuted.' So- 
crates. 

19. 'Mead.' Others read 'mixto ;' i.e. 'mix- 
ed with water.' 

55. ' wine of Surrentum,' a light wine mixed 
with the lees of the strong Falernian. 

63. 'of compound sauce.' But some take 
it as 'the two kinds of sauce.' But 'duplicis' 
would seem to be opposed to 'simplex.' 

66. 'Byzantine jar,' because the tunny-fish 
was caught near Byzantium. 

68. ' Cilician ;' literally ' Corycian.' Corycus 
was a mountain in Cilicia, famous for saffron. _ 

94. 'hidden sources— blessed life.' This 
seems, as Macleane says, to be a parody oi 
Lucretius. 



V. 

I. 'Teiresias.' This is an amusing parody- 
on the interview between Teiresias the prophet 
and Ulysses in the eleventh book of the 
Odyssey. 

14. 'even before the household god,' i.e. 
the Lar, to whom the first-fruits were offered. 
He was the family god, the good genius of the 
house, connected with the departed ancestors 
of the family. 

18. 'Dama,' a common name for a slave. 

20. 'I'll bid my stalwart— I've borne.' A 
parody on Homer. 

32. 'the praenomen.' Either because the 
use of it, like a Christian name amongst us, 
implies familiarity ; or the man addressed, once 
a slave, likes to hear the name used that re- 
minds him of his manumission. 

39. 'whether the flaming — wintry Alps.' 
This is a parody of the bombastic Furius. See 
Sat. 1. 10, 36. 

44. 'more tunnies;' i.e. more rich fools: 
so Swift uses 'gudgeons' for people easily 
ensnared. 

56. ' quinquevir,' a member of some board 
of commissioners, 'a notary,' a public officer. 
Horace was himself one. See Sat. 11. 6, 36. 

59. ' will happen or will not.' This seems 
to be a joke, as a pompous truism. 

63. ' of the race of ^Eneas,' as Virgil repre- 
sents Augustus in the ALneid. 

84. "There was at Thebes.' Thebes is the 
place mentioned, as Teiresias was a Theban. 

101. 'And is my old comrade.' In the 
original 'ergo,' the word used also in Ode 1. 
24, 5, after death. 

109. ' for a nominal consideration ;' just for 
a single sesterce; as in the English form, 'in 
consideration of the sum of ten shillings.' 

VI. 

The most delightful of Satires, which is no 
Satire ; it is imitated by Swift, and the latter 
part added afterwards by Pope. See Walcke- 
naer, Vol. 1. p. 373. 

1. 'a piece of land.' Here is a short de- 
scription of his Sabine villa with the brook Di- 
gentia. 

3. ' besides.' Compare Efiod. 1, 31, a passage 
of similar contentment. Some render ' over 
these;' and so, just over Horace's villa was 
mount Lucretilis, now Gennaro._ 

5. 'son of Maia, 5 Mercury, invoked as the 
god of gain, and the patron of Horace the 
poet. 

13. 'Hercules,' like Mercury, also the god 
of fortunate findings, as of treasure trove. 

20. ' Thou father of dawn ;' the same god 
as Janus, i.e. Dianus, originally the god of the 
day. 

23. 'I am hurried away by thee,' i.e. by 
Janus, as setting Horace onwards for the busi- 
ness of the day. 

32. 'Now that this is my delight,' i.e. to 
get back to Maecenas. 

33. ' Esquiiine Hill ;' once a common bury- 
ing place, now the abode of Maecenas. 



• 



35. 'Puteal/ built by Scribonius Libeo ii 
the Forum, where the money-lenders met. 

36. ' the notaries,' who wanted to obtain th< 
interest of Horace, once himself 1 member 
their body. 

40. ' Seven years and more/ If Horai 
was introduced to Maecenas about B. c. 38, this 
Satire was written B.C. 30, when Horace was 
35- 

44. 'the Thracian Gallina,' a gladiator of 
the so-called 'Thracian' sort of gladiators. 
Perhaps ' Syrus' was a Mirmillo. 

55. ' to the veterans ;' who were discontented 
after the battle of Actium, B.C. 31. 

63. ' the relations of Pythagoras,' for Pytha- 
goras forbad his disciples eating beans, in 
which, said he, were the souls of the dead, 
See Ovid, Metamorph., last book. 

69. ' unreasonable laws,' imposed elsewhei 
by the governor of the feast. 

114. 'mastiffs;' in the original 'Molossian 
dogs;' so called from Molossia, a region of 
Epirus. 

VII. 

4. 'freedom of December,' i.e. the Satur- 
nalia. 

10. 'changing the stripe of his tunic' He 
was a senator; and might, if he chose, wear 
the laticlave ; but sometimes he would wear 
only the narrow stripe, like a knight. 

14. 'all the Vertumni.' Vertumnus was the 
god of change, who, as Tibullus said, ' wore a 
thousand ornaments, and all gracefully.' 

33. 'when the lamps are just lighted.' To 
dine late was by the Romans accounted simple, 
and this simplicity Maecenas affected. 

43 ' five hundred drachmae ' amounts to, say, 
£17, or ;£i8, the price for a poor sort of slave. 

45. 'the porter of Crispinus.' The porter 
retailed the lectures of his blear-eyed philo- 
sophic master; Sat. 1. 1, 120. 

76. ' praetor's rod.' The praetor laid a rod 
on the shoulder of the slave, as he gave him 
freedom. 

79. 'a substitute.' Literally, 'a vicar,' a 
slave to wait on a slave, which slave was as a 
master to him. 

86. 'like a sphere ;' for the ancients thought 
a globe was the most perfect shape. 

95. ' by Pausias ;' a painter of Sicyon, about 
350 B.C. 

96. ' Fulvius, Rutuba, Placideianus ; ' gladia- 
tors. 

118. 'you shall join the eight labourers,' 
where he would have to grind in a mill, get 
well beaten, work in chains. 

VIII. 

3. 'to dine early;' which by the Romans 
was accounted luxurious. See above, Sat. 11. 
7, 33. 

6. ' Lucanian boar ;' for these and the Um- 
brian boars were esteemed as good, being fed 
on the acorns of the Apennines. 

7. ' the father of the feast :' the host, who 
acted as governor of the feast. 

9. 'skirret;' called also skirwort: its root 
has the taste of a parsnip. 



1. 1.] 



NOTES.— THE EPISTLES. 



2 SI 



14, 'Hydaspes,' an Indian, named from 
the river Hydaspes. 

15. 'home-made Chian.' See Persius, vr. 
39, who appears thus to have understood 
Horace: but some say 'without salt-water in 
it :' while Yonge thinks Persius and Horace 
mean 'without power,' wanting in body. 

20. 'on the highest couch,' the couch on 
the right, facing the lowest couch. The place 
of honour was the corner of the middle couch, 
where was Maecenas, next to the host's parasite 
on the Jowest couch. See St. Luke xx. 46 ; 
xiv. 8. 

22. ' friends he had introduced ;' uninvited; 
literally 'shadows;' in Italian 'ombre 1 in 
Gargallo's translation. 

26. ' as to the rest of us,' all except Maece- 
nas ; or, perhaps, all except the host. 

34. 'shall die unavenged;' in Epic style, 
as are many bits of the Satires of Horace. 

39. ' large cups ;' literally, of Allifae, a town 
of Samnium on the Vulturnus. 



42. 'sea-eel;' mursena, or lamprey, which 
the ancients esteemed. Hortensius, the orator, 
cried at the death of one which he had kept in 
a fish-pond. 

50. ^ 'Lesbian;' in the original 'Methym- 
nasan.' Methymna was the second town of 
Lesbos, the birth-place of Arion and Hellani- 
cus. 

52. 'sea-urchins;' animals with firm shells 
covered with spires. 

54. 'the tapestry,' which hung from the 
ceiling of the room. 

58. 'Rufus,' i.e. Nasidienus. 

77. _ 'calls for his slippers;' for the ancients 
at their meals took off their sandals or slippers. 

79. ' I should have preferred this to any 
play.' This is suitable, as addressed to Fun- 
danius, who wrote comedies. Sat. 1. 10, 42. 

89. 'hares' wings,' which the ancients 
thought the best part. See Sat. II. 2, 44. 

95. ' Canidia.' This is the last time she is 
mentioned. 



EPISTLES. 



BOOK I. 

I. 

1. Pope's imitation of this Epistle may be 
usefully compared with the original. He has 
also imitated Epistle 6, and part of 7, in this 
book ; and the two Epistles of the 2nd book. 

'lay.' The sense of the passage shows that 
the word is here applied to his writings gene- 
rally, not to the Odes alone. Also, he uses the 
word ' Muse ' of his Epistles, as in 1. 8, 2. 

4. Veianius was a well-known gladiator. As 
to the dedication of his arms, comp. Od. in. 
26. 

6. By 'the edge of the arena' is meant the 
'podium,' where sat the spectators of highest 
rank. 

7. ' unobstructed,' i. e. by error or prejudice. 
9. ' in the end.' It seems best not to press 

the phrase so as to make it refer to the end of 
the course. For 'strain his flanks,' comp. 
Virg. Georg. in. 506. 

14. ' bound.' The word is specially used of 
a debtor assigned to his creditor, 'in' ex- 
presses the act of repeating from dictation. So 
in Efiod. 15, 4. 

16. ' I turn practical.' He is speaking of 
the Stoic philosophy. 

18. Aristippus was the founder of the Cy- 
lenaic school, which generally resembled the 
Epicurean. For the doctrine of the next line, 
see Epist. 6, throughout. 

21. 'who work for debt.' Lit. 'who owe 
work;* who are working off arrears of labour. 

22. 'supervision.' For the widow would 
have the control (custodia) of the children, 



though she could not act as their guardian 
(tutor). 

28. 'you may not.' Supply 'quum' or 
' quamvis ' before ' non.' 

29. 'when your eyes are sore.' Comp. Sat. 

I- 5, 3°- ... 

30. Glycon, like Veianius, was a well-known 
character of the time. 

34. ' spells.' The maxims of philosophy ; 
so, the ' purificatory rites ' of 1. 37. 

41. 'the beginning of virtue ;' 'prima' must 
be taken as agreeing with ' virtus,' as well as 
with ' sapientia.' 

45. ' with speed.* Comp. Od. nr. 24, 36. 

50. 'the great Olympian games.' The 
phrase is a translation of are^avovcrOaL 'OXvfx-La. 
The ace. is one of limitation. ' to be crowned 
as regards the Olympian festival,' itpa. So 
'without the dust' = Gr. cLkovltC. 

52. 'gold is meaner than virtues,' as village 
games are inferior to the Olympian. 

54. 'Janus.' The space between the arcades 
of Janus formed the exchange of Rome. 
Sat. 11. 3, 18, note. 

56. 'Satchels.' The merchants' purses are 
compared to school-boys' satchels. This 'line, 
repeated from Sat. 1. 6, 74, has been supposed 
to be spurious here ; but, as it seems, without 
sufficient reason. 

58. The four hundred thousand sesterces 
were the property qualification of a knight. 

59. 'you shall be king.' There is . 

in the Lat., on 'rex' and 'recte.' The mean* 
ing is: as he who plays best, wins. 
perfect life, not the greatest wealth, should be 
most valued. 

61. 'to feel no guilt within,' lit. 



252 



HORACE. 



[I. *, 3- 



conscious of nothing with one's self;' to have 
nothing on the conscience. 

62. The Roscian law reserved the first 14 
rows of the orchestra stalls in the theatre for 
those who had at least the property qualification 
of a knight. Epod. 4, 16; Juvenal, in. 159. 

67. 'have a closer view.' See last note. 
' lamentable ' is, of course, used in a satirical 
sense. Nothing is known of Pupius. 

76. 'a many-headed monster.' Alluding to 
the hydra. So Shakespeare, Coriolanns, A. iv. 
Sc. 1 : 'the beast with many heads.' And Scott, 
Lady of the Lake: 

'Thou many-headed monster thing.' 

79. 'their preserves,' i.e. inveigle them so 
far as to make sure of coming in for their 
property. 

80. 'secret usury' seems to mean, above 
the legal rate of 12 per cent, per annum; or, 
on money lent to those who are legally infants. 
A very similar phrase is used in a good sense 
in Od. 1. 12, 45. 

84. ' the lake,' the Lucrine lake. Od. II. 15, 
3, note. 

85. 'unreasoning,' 'vitiosa' here='full of 
defects.' In Od. ji. 16, 21, it means 'that 
which causes defects.' 

86. 'auspices.' See Od. I. 7, 27, note. 
Teanum is about 30 Roman miles from Baiae 

(Baja). 

87. 'is in his hall.' This was the sign that 
the house was occupied by married people. 

90. 'Proteus.' SeeVirg. Georg. iv. 387, &C. 

93. ' sea-sick,' and accordingly discontented, 
of course. 

94. ' capillos ' is rather a curious instance of 
the ace. of limitation. Comp. Virg. Georg. iv. 337. 
' occurri' in the next line is an instance of the 
aoristic use of the perfect, so common in Virgil 
and Horace. 

' insequali tonsore ' must be explained as an 
abl. abs. The adj. agreeing grammatically 
with ' tonsore ' is meant to describe the quality 
of his workmanship. Od. I. 6, 1, note. 

100. 'exchanges' &c, i.e. does so without 
reason. 

101. 'like other folks.' This adverbial use 
of the adj. seems best explained as an ace. of 
limitation. 'Mad to the extent of what is 
usual.' 

102. 'appointed by the praetor/ in default 
of a relation legally qualified. 

105. 'safeguard,' &c. Pope's 'guide, phi- 
losopher, and friend. ' 

108. 'sound.' ' Sanus,'=Gr. vy 07'?. 'Perfect 
in mind and body. ' 

II. 

2. 'Prseneste.' This was one of Horace's 
favourite country retreats. See Od. in. 40, 22. 

3. 'what is fair,' &c, to /caAbv, to aicrxpovy 
to <rviA(f)epov. 

4. Chrysippus, Sat. I. 3, 126. Crantor, a 
disciple of Plato. Comp. Milton: 'our sage and 
serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be known 
to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aqui- 
nas.' 

7. 'barbarians.' Od. II. 49, note. 



9- ' to cut away the cause,' by giving up 
Helen. 

13. 'the one,' Agamemnon, in his love for 
Chryseis, 77. 1. 113. 

19. ' that wary man.' A paraphrase of the 
opening of the Odyssey. Comp. A rt. Poet. 141. 

23. 'the Sirens' lays,' &c., as representing 
the allurements of pleasure. So in Sat. 11. 3, 
*4- 

29. 'in attending to,' &c. Lit. 'in taking 
care of their skin ;' a common phrase in Latin. 
Sat. 11. 5, 38 ; Epist. 1. 4, 15. Of course this 
passage is merely in jest. 

39. ' from year to year.' The phrase seems 
to = 'ex anno in annum.' Epist. 1. 11, 23, 
note. 

40.^ 'half the act.' 'Apxn Be rot rjixicrv 
navTos. ' Now the beginning is half the whole.' 
The author of the saying is unknown : it has 
been ascribed to Pythagoras. 

42. 'like the clown.' The allusion seems to 
be to a fable now lost. 

44. 'money.' Comp. French 'argent.' The 
word 'argentum' is mostly used to mean 
'plate.' But the word is employed in the 
present sense in Sat. 1. 1, 86, and in Sat. 11. 
6, 10. 

48. 'is wont to remove.' The perf. (deduxit) 
is aoristic. 

52. ' warm applications to the gout.' As they 
would only increase the pain. The Romans 
were extravagantly fond of warm baths. The 
so-called 'Turkish bath' should rather be the 
'Roman bath.' 

55. ' Scorn pleasures.' This series of sen- 
tentious sayings (yi/wjucu) points altogether to 
the excellence of moderation and self-control. 

58. ' Sicilian tyrants ;' Dionysius, &c. Comp. 
Od. in. 1, 18. 

61. 'to gratify.' 'odio' is dat 'of advan- 
tage' after 'festinat.' 

64. 'with neck still pliable,' 'cervice' is 
abl. of quality; and 'viam' in the next line is 
probably ace. cognate. Some govern it by 
'monstret.' 

67. 'begins its service.' 'militat' is a good 
example of the inceptive force of the present. 

68. 'heart still clear.' Comp. Epist. 1. 1, 7, 
note. 

70. 'if you lag behind,' &c. See analysis. 

III. 

1. Nothing definite is known of Floras, to 
whom is also addressed the 2nd Epistle of the 
2nd Book. Porphyrio says that he edited 
satires of Ennius, Lucilius, and Varro. Proba- 
bly he modernised their phraseology. 

3. 'Hebrus.' Od. 1. 25, 20, note. 

4. ' towers ;' those commemorative of Hero 
and Leander. 'Asia' is the Roman colony so 
named. 

6. 'description of works.' It seems better 
to take 'operum' as partitive gen. after 'Quid,' 
than as governed by 'studiosa.' Comp. the 
absolute use of 'peritus' in Od. 11. 20, 19. 

9. Nothing is known of this Titius. 'The 
Pindaric spring '= lyrics in the style of Pindar. 



1.4-6.] 



NOTES.— THE EPISTLES. 



253 



See Od. iv. 2, 1. For 'expalluit' with ace, 
comp. Od. in. 27, 28. 

13. 'Theban'=' Pindaric.' 'At the prompt- 
ing.' See Od. 1. 7, 27, note. 

14. * mouth,' ' ampullari '= Gr. X.r)Kv6C£eiv. 
And comp. Art. Poet. 97. 

15. 'mini' (dat. ethic.) nearly ='meus :' but 
also contains the meaning of ' tell me.' 

'Celsus' is perhaps the friend to whom the 
8th Epistle of this Book is written. 

17. The temple of Apollo on the Palatine 
was the Imperial Library, founded by Augustus. 
The reference is, of course, to plagiarisms from 
well-known authors. 

19. 'the wretched crow' in iEsop's fable. 
The passage is not to be taken too seriously. 

21. 'flitting.' So he speaks of himself as a 
bee, in Od. iv. 2, 27. 

23. 'jura' (for sing, 'jus civile,') is a sort of 
ace. of limitation : ' to give opinions, so far as 
concerns the common law.' 

25. 'ivy.' See Od. 1. 1, 29, note. 

26. Literally 'applications of cares.' Celsus 
says that there are cold, dry, and wet, as well 
as hot 'fomenta.' 'Cold' is the word used 
here, as opposed to the warmth of genius. The 
allusion is to avarice and ambition. 

30. 'whether,' &c. The readings waver 
between 'si* and 'sit.' In the former case, 
supply 'sit;' in the latter, 'utrum.' 

31. 'badly sewn.' The metaphor is from a 
wound imperfectly dressed. 

35. ' that are not such.' 'indigni ' followed 
by inf. is an application of a Greek construction 
not uncommon in Virgil and Horace. 

IV. 

1. 'Albius.' See Od. 1. 33. His family 
estate was at Pedum (prob. Zagarola), not far 
from Tibur. 

3. _ Cassius of Parma is said to have been 
a military tribune together with Horace in the 
army of Brutus, and to have been afterwards 
put to death by the victorious party. His 
'pieces' were probably elegies, like those of 
Tibullus. 

6.^ 'You never were.' Such is the force of 
the imperf. 'eras.' ' You never were, and are 
not now.' 

9. 'who, like you,' &c. The readings differ 
greatly ; ' quam ' or ' quam ut ' for ' qui ' being 
the principal variations. The reading and 
construction adopted here are those of Lam- 
binus. The passage seems thus to give the best 
and most natural sense. There can be no 
reasonable doubt that ' alumno ' is a dative. 

12. _ "Twixt hope and care,' &c. A common- 
place in Horace's usual tone. Comp. Od. iv. 7. 
_ 15. ' plump and sleek.' See Lij e by Sueto- 
nius, p. 19. 

'in high condition.! Efiist. 1. 2, 29, note. 

16. 'a hog.' A common taunt used by the 
Stoics. Cicero in Pison. 16, 37 : ' Epicurus, 
our friend, you who issued from a sty, not from 
a school of philosophy. ' 
V. 

1. 'Archias,' a well-known cabinet-maker 
at Rome, as it appears. 



2. 'miscellaneous salad.' 'olus' is a sort of 
cognate ace. after 'coenare.' The use of 
|omne' is curious. Orelli compares the Gr. tu 
l-nnvxov, but the words are not identical. 

4. 'consule,' abl. abs. according to the 
usual construction, is understood with 'Tauro.' 
He was consul with Augustus, e. c. 26. 

'drawn off into jars/ ' bottled,' as we should 
say. 

5. Sinuessan only ranked as a third-class 
wine. 

6. ' obey my orders,' as master of the feast, 
'meum' is, rather abruptfy, to be supplied 
with 'imperium.' 

9. Moschus was a rhetorician of Pergamus. 
He was accused of poisoning, and defended by 
Torquatus, whose leader was Asinius Pollio. 

'Caesar' is probably Augustus; though the 
word by itself refers to Julius, in Od. 1. 2, 44. 
The birthday of Augustus was Sept. 23 ; that 
of J. Caesar, July 12 ; but the former, at least in 
Italy, might properly be said to be in the sum- 
mer. 

12. 'quo' seems best explained as the old 
form of the dative; 'optem,' or some similar 
word, being understood after 'fortunam.' The 
phrase occurs in Ovid, Am. 11. 19, 7. The 
reading of this line is much disputed. 

13. ' through regard for his heir.' Comp. 
Od. iv. 7, 19. 

14. 'scatter flowers.' The phrase seems to 
be used indefinitely, to express a certain reck- 
lessness of festivity. 

16. ' effect/ in the imagination of the drink- 
er, 'designo/ lit. ='to mark out.' The sense 
it bears in this line is not common. Comp. 
Terence, Ad. 1. 2, 6. On the whole passage, 
comp. Od. in. 21, 13, &c. 

21. 'efficiently.' The sense seems to be: 
'as one who is efficient and also willing.' 

25. 'elimino' is not elsewhere used, except 
in the literal sense of ' to turn out of doors.' 

26. The friends here mentioned are other- 
wise unknown to us, though it has been at- 
tempted to identify them with persons else- 
where spoken of. 

28. 'introductions.' See Sat. 11. 8, 22, 
note. Horace, Torquatus, and the three other 
friends, would make five guests, leaving four 
more to be invited, so as to make the usual 
number, nine. 

30. ' to bring/ lit. 'to be.' 'quotus' agrees 
with the person, according to the usual idiom. 
Orelli compares Martial, Xiv. 217. 

31. 'by the back-door.' Horace ends with 
a joke, as he often does, and as is suited to the 
character of this Epistle. 

VI. 

1. f To wonder at nothing.' The same doc- 
trine is dwelt upon in Od. 11. 6. This idea, 
that composure and rest and the abseiu 
citement form the highest happiness, seems to 
be an element in the Buddhist doctrine ot the 
Nirvana: it has also found a place, under 
various forms, in the religious beliefs of other 
nations. Among the Romans it was repre- 
sented in a more practical shape (agreeably to 



254 



HORACE. 



[L 7 . 



the temperament of the nation), by such cha- 
racters as Cato, &c. Plato, on the other hand, 
says that wonder (to Oavfxd^eiv) is particularly 
the feeling of a philosopher. The phrase seems 
to refer to the energy of inquiry : for Plato's 
master, Socrates, was certainly a model of 
composure and self-control. 

6. * gifts of the sea/ i.e. pearls, and the 
famous purple dye, now lost, which was ex- 
tracted from the juice of a shell-fish. 

'Arabs.' See Od. 1. 29, 1, note. 

7. 'favours.' Political honours are, of 
course, referred to. 

13. 'chance to see,' 'vidit' is used in the 
aoristic sense of the perfect. 

17. ' Go now,' ' I nunc ' is sarcastic, as it 
usually is. Virg. JEn. vn. 425. Efiist. 11. 2, 76. 

' works of art/ ' artes ' is used in this sense 
in Od. iv. 8, 5. 

21. The sting is in the fact that Mutus got 
the land without any work of his own. Mutus 
is not otherwise known to us. 

24. ' Whatever is beneath the earth.' The 
sense is, that all material possessions are short- 
lived, and will soon be swept away by death. 
This is a favourite truism of Horace. 

26. ' Agrippa's colonnade,' i. e. that con- 
structed and adorned by M. Vipsanius Agrippa. 
Od. 1. 6. The Appian Way was the great 
south road from Rome. See Sat. 1. 5, 6, &c. 

27. ' Numa.' See Od. iv. 7, 15, note. 

28. ' If your chest/ &c. This is an instance 
of Horace's frequent comparison between the 
defects of the mind and of the body. The 
same line occurs in Sat. 11. 3, 163. 

31. ' you think virtue to be words.' The 
last utterance of Brutus, according to Dio, 
consisted of two Greek iambic verses, of which 
this is a translation : 

"Poor Virtue, you were but a word ; yet I 
Practised as real what was Fortune's fool." 

32. 'a forest fagots/ i.e. 'you think a 
sacred grove to be simply so much timber : you 
are purely matter-of-fact; you have no imagi- 
nation.' 

'get into harbour before you/ 'occupet' 
= Gr. <})6dv€Lv with the participle. Od. 11. 12, 
28, note. 

33. Cibyra was a town of Phrygia, cele- 
brated for its iron manufactures. To ' miss the 
market ' seems to refer to the market of pur- 
chase, not that of sale ; i. e. ' lest another, 
arriving before you, buy the goods at a lower 
price.' 

34. 'a thousand talents ' = about ^200,000. 
37. 'high birth and beauty.' That is, of 

course, ' money will make people call you 
noble and handsome, even if the contrary be 
the truth.' 

39. 'the king.' Cicero speaks of his poverty 
in his letters to Atticus, VI. 1, 4. The sense of 
the passage is rather loosely connected. It is; 
' be anything rather than poor ; aim at the super- 
fluous wealth of Lucullus, and shun the poverty 
of the Cappadocian king.' 

42. 'How.' Qui (quo) = Quomodo. 

44. 'purple cloaks.' Though the word 
(chlamys) does not literally convey so much as 



this, yet here it is used in a particular and 
emphatic sense, 'ut' is readily understood be- 
fore 'tolleret/ and 'praetor/ as a subject. 
Plutarch says that he was the official who was 
bringing out the show. 

45. 'Meagre.' The passage is sarcastic. 

46. 'knaves.' This word, = ' thievish slaves/ 
is also so used by Virg. Eel. in. 16. 

51. 'across the tradesman's scales.' This 
seems the best explanation of a difficult pas- 
sage.^ Orelli says that it is confirmed by a 
drawing which represents a shop in Pompeii, 
preserved in the Museo Borbonico at Naples. 
The other best known explanation is rather 
grotesque : ' to stretch out your hand beyond 
the centre of gravity;' so that you run the 
risk of tumbling down. 

54. ' the ivory curule chair/ alluding parti- 
cularly to the consulship. Horace writes as if 
the republic still existed practically. 

58. We know nothing of this Gargilius. 

60. 'before the eyes of the people/ so that 
they might imagine that he was a great hunter. 
The general sense is ' let us devote ourselves to 
good living ; and, if we hunt at all for our 
game, let it be only make-believe.' 

61. 'let us bathe.' It was thought that this 
would renew the appetite. There is a very 
similar passage in Juvenal, 1. 142. See Epist. 
1. 2, 52, note. 

62. 'to be classed among the Caerites/ i.e. 
to lose our civil rights. Gellius says that they 
were the inhabitants of Caere in Etruria; and 
that they were the first people who were 
admitted to the privileges of Romans, without 
the franchise : and so the censor enrolled among 
them any person deprived of his full rights as a 
citizen. 

63. ' forbidden pleasure.' When they killed 
the oxen of the Sun. Odyss. xn. 297. 

65. Mimnermus was an elegiac poet of 
Colophon. According to Porphyrio, he placed 
the chief good in indifference. The cynical 
and splenetic Swift is, rather oddly, the Mim- 
nermus of Pope. 

" If Swift cry wisely, 'Vive la bagatelle !' 
The man that loves and laughs must sure do 
well." 

VII. 

2. 'August.' In the Lat 'Sextilem.' The 
name of this month was not changed to that of 
'Augustus/ till about the time of Horace's 
death, B.C. 8. 

6. ' undertaker.' The word literally means 
'one who arranges.' ' lictor/^ the appointed 
servant of an officer of state, is here applied 
with a sort of grim humour. The word is used 
in the general sense of 'an attendant/ also in 
Plautus, Pcen. Prol. 18. The unhealthiness of 
Rome in the autumn was (and is now still more) 
notorious. Od. n. 14, 16 ; Sat. n. 6, 19. 

7. 'fond mother.' Such is the force of the 
diminutive ' matercula.' See 1. 65, note. 

8. ' courtesies.' Especially those rendered 
to a patron, the calling on friends, &c. 

10. ' But when/ ' si ' is used in this sense in 
Sat. n. 3, 10. 



s NOTES.— THE EPISTLES. 



2 55 



12. * crouching in a corner,' i.e. wrapped up 
and taking care of himself. 

14. ' Calabrian '= rustic and rude. The Cala- 
brians (Bruttii) remained comparatively uncivil- 
ised till rather a late period. 

16. 'you are very kind;' a polite refusal. 
Comp. Gr. aiviZ, and modern Italian ' tante 
grazie.' 

21. 'seed.' 'seges' is here employed in its 
less usual sense. It commonly = ' sown corn 
when ripe.' 

22. 'professes himself ready.' The con- 
struction of the nom. 'paratus' is Gr. See Od. 

i in. 27, 73, note. 

23. ' counters,' lit. 'lupine-seeds,' used as 
sham money on the stage, &c. 

24. ' my benefactor,' ' merentis ' — ' bene me- 
. rentis de me.' Virg. JEn. vi. 664. 

26. ' strength of chest.' ' latus ' is often used 
in the sense of physical strength, as in Cicero, 
de Sen. ix. 27. 'slender brow,' i.e. seeming so, 
because the thick hair clustered at the sides. 
Comp. Od. 1. 33, 5. 

27. 'my winning words.' 'loqui' and the 
two following infinitives are here used substan- 
tively, like Gr. inf. with article : to ye\av, &c. 

28. 'Cinara.' See Int. to Odes, p. 22. 

29. 'fox.' So all the MSS. Bentley ingeni- 
ously conjectured 'nitedula,' 'a dormouse,' 
and he has been followed by most modern com- 
mentators. The principal reasons for the change 
are, that a fox is rather too large an animal to 
pass through a chink into a corn-bin, and does 
not eat corn. However, jEsop's fables are full 
of grotesque fictions ; such as that of various 
beasts going to hunt together, of the lion eating 
his meat cooked, &c. 

34. 'challenged,' ' compellor' is used in the 
same sense in Sat. 11. 3, 297. It nearly =' re- 
buked.' 

36. 'the Arabs.' See Od. 1. 29, 1, note. 

37. ' king,' a word often used by clients, in 
speaking of their patron. Epist. I. 17, 20. For 
'father,' comp. Epist. 1. 6, 54, 

38. 'received from me,' lit. 'have heard;' 
Gr. aKoveiv. Milton has attempted to trans- 
plant the phrase into English. Par. Lost, in. 7 : 

" Or hear' st thou rather pure ethereal stream ?" 
Comp. Sat. 11. 6, 20. 

39. 'have the power.' The pres. indie, of 
the original is meant to express his confidence 
that he does possess this power. 

40. ' Telemachus.' The passage is taken 
from Odyss. iv. 601. ' enduring ' = 7roAvTA.a<>. 

42. ' level tracts.' The whole phrase seems 
simply =•' spatiosus.' There is no sufficient 
reason for explaining ' spatiis ' (as Orelli does) 
in its more technical sense of ' race-courses.' 

44. ' imperial Rome. ' Comp. ' dominie Romse, ' 
Od. iv. 14, 44. 

45. 'free from crowds.' Comp. 'vacuse 
Athense,' Epist. n. 2, 81 : and with 'peaceful 
Tarentum,' 'molle Tarentum,' Sat. II. 4, 34. 

46. This Philippus was consul in b. c. 91. 
Cicero describes him (de Orat. 3, 1, 4,) as 
' energetic and fluent, and particularly deter- 

j mined in fighting a case.' 

47. ' the eighth hour,' about 2 p.m. 



48. ' Carinae,' a fashionable quarter of Rome, 
where were the mansions of Pompey, Q. Cicero, 
&c. 

50. 'just shaved.' The word ('adrasum') 
has the same force in Petronius, c. 32. 

' then empty.' Most people would have been 
shaved earlier; but Mena on this day was 
taking his ease. 

51. 'his own nails,' i.e. not having them 
dressed by the barber. But the word, which 
seems = Gr. <p[\ov<;, gives additional expression 
to the lazy carelessness of the attitude. 

52. 'Demetrius,' a Greek page. Greek 
servants, as is often mentioned by Juvenal, 
were fashionable at Rome. 

53. 'what place,' i.e. 'what country?' Lit. 
' from whence from home?' So'msEn. VIII. 1x4. 

54. ^ 'his patron.' This appears to mean, 
'or, in case he is a freedman, who is his 
patron ?' 

56. 'known,' &c. There is much doubt 
whether it is right to take the passage thus, or 
to take 'notum' absolutely, or to connect it 
with the next line. The force of 'notum,' 
taken by itself, does not seem very pointed. 
If 'notum' be taken with the next line, 
'gaudentem' governs ' sodalibus,' &c. Accord- 
ing to the arrangement adopted here, these 
ablatives are those 'of quality.' 

61. 'ut' is understood before 'veniat,' ac- 
cording to the usual idiom. 

'not quite.' Orelli says that 'non sane' = 
ou irdvv. And this is certainly sometimes the 
meaning of the Greek phrase ; though it has 
been violently contended that it always = ' by 
no means.' 

62. 'very kind.' See note on 1. 16. 

63. ' Can it be,' &c. This is the ' delibera- 
tive' subj. 

'the rascal.' 'improbus' seems always to 
contain the notion of excess ; here, of excess 
in perversity. Comp. 'improbus anser,' Virg. 
Georg. 1. 119, which Conington proposes oddly 
to translate 'the unconscionable goose.' 

65. 'second-hand goods.' *scruta'=Gr. 
ypvTY]. The old commentator says that the 
popular form of the word was 'grutae.' 

'the poor.' 'popello.' The diminutive is 
slightly contemptuous. Sometimes it exprt 
a sort of endearment ; as in 1. 7, and in Epist. 
1. 4, 8. Comp. the French ' petit papa,' the 
Italian 'signorino,' &c. 

66. 'accosts.' Orelli well compares Gr. 
<p9dvei irpocrayopevoov. 

70. 'As you please.' The shade of meaning 
is slightly different in 1. 19. 

71. 'the ninth hour.' About 3 p. m. ^ 

72. 'meet and unmeet.' Gr. prjTa apprjra. 
In this and the next line it is gently, but clearly 
hinted, that Mena showed himself not well 
versed in the usages of good society, and that 
he drank more wine than was good for him. 

76. 'the Latin Holidays.' These did not 
occur at any fixed period, but were proclai 
by the Consul, according to the convenience of 
public business. 

77. 'carriage.' Some explain the phrase ;is 
meaning 'when mounted on nags.' But the 



256 



HORACE, 



[I. 8-10. 



use of the plural, and the age of Philippus, are 
against this construction. 'Mannis' is also held 
to mean 'mules.' Od. in. 27, 7. 

'Sabine country/ which was not very beauti- 
ful, and where the climate was rather cold. 

80. 'seven thousand sesterces '=about ^56. 
Money (in the time of Horace, at least,) was 
cheap ; but so was land in the country, though 
not at Rome. 

84. 'prates.' Comp. Od. 1. 18, 5. 
'makes ready.' ' vinous' is easily understood 

after 'praeparat.' 

85. _■ 'half kills himself,' lit. 'dies over his 
pursuits.' 'studiis' is dat. 'passion for gain.' 
This phrase seems taken from Virg. Georg. 
iv. 177, where it is applied to bees. 

87. 'disappointed.' Comp. Od. in. 1, 30. 

91. 'you seem to me.' The composed 
manner of the old lawyer is amusingly con- 
trasted with the angry despair of Mena. 

92. 'Pol'='per Pollucem.' The phrase is 
very common in Plautus and Terence. • 

94. The 'Genius' of each man came into 
the world at his birth, and left it at his death, 
and was a sort of guardian angel. Epist. 11. 2, 
187, note. 

98. 'should measure himself;' i.e. 'should 
find out what suits him, and what does not.' 
Comp. the subject of Sat. 1. 1. 

VIII. 

1. Celsus is probably the friend who is 
mentioned in I. 3, 15. It seems right to explain 
the infinitives in this line as substantival=Gr. 
to Yatpeii> kox to ed TrpaTTecv. 

3. ' threaten.' Comp. Sat. 11. 3, 9. 

4. 'perfect nor pleasant.' This is the only 
one of Horace's compositions which can be 
said to be written in at all a morbid tone. See 
Gen. Int. 

6. 'distant pastures.' Orelli mentions the 
large pasture-lands of Calabria and Cisalpine 
Gaul. Theword 'longinquis' seems also to 
express the idea of large extent. 

7. 'all my body.' That is, 'the least 
healthy part of my body is sounder than the 
healthiest part of my mind.' 

10. 'shield me from.' The usual construc- 
tion after 'arceo ' is ace. of the thing repelled : 
but this is an inverted construction, in the style 
of Virgil: so in Art. Poet. 64. 'Cur' = 'prop- 
terea quod,' is used in the same way in Od. 1. 

33 > 3- 

i2. 'fickle as the wind.' Horace makes the 
same charge against his slave, in Sat. 11. 7, 28. 

14. 'his youthful patron.' Tiberius was at 
this time about 22. 'the staff.' Comp. Sat. 1. 
7, 23, &c. 

15. 'wish him joy.' 'Gaudere'seems=' ilium 
gaudere jubere.' 

16. 'delicate ears.' This is again a different 
shade of meaning conveyed by the diminutive. 
Comp. Epist % 1. 7, 65, note. 

IX. 

1. This Epistle ^ is praised, as a model of a 
letter of introduction, in the Spectator, 'No. 
493, as Mr Theodore Martin observes. 



staff.' 



3. 'actually,' 'scilicet.* This force of the 
word is uncommon ; though it is often used in 
an ironical, as well as in its properly demon- 
strative sense. JEn. iv. 379. 

4. ' what is honourable.' The indefinite use 
of the neuter seems=Gr. r<x KaAa. 

9. 'a dissembler.' Such as Aristotle de- 
scribes in the Ethics, iv. 3, as 'one who seems 
to deny or disparage what he really possesses.' 

11. 'stooped.' This seems the force of the 
word, meaning, as in Cicero, in Ccecil. I. 1, 
something which to a certain extent lowers self- 
respect. 

'the prize.' This word, used ironically, 
=' disgrace.' 

13. 'among your flock,' i. e. 'among your 
' 'gregis' is the partitive genitive. 

X. 

1. 'Aristius.' See Od. 1. 22. 1, note. In the 
present epistle the ideas are mostly Stoical; 
and Horace seems to have had a real admira- 
tion for this school of philosophy, though he 
often makes jokes on certain forms which it 
assumed. 

2. 'actually.' Comp. Epist. 1. 9. 3, note. 

3. 'twins,' lit. 'being almost twins,' &c. 
'animis' is abl. of quality. After the second 
'alter,' 'negat' must be understood. 1. 4. is a 
sort of parenthesis. 

8. 'am a king.' This is the language of a 
Stoic. Comp. Epist. 1. 1, 107. 

9. 'loud applause.' Comp. the meaning of 
the same phrase in /En. vni. 90. There, on 
the whole, it seems to refer to the voices of the 
crew. 

10. The priest's 'sweet wafers,' a surfeit of 
which made his slave run away, here denote 
the artificial, as opposed to the natural life, 
which is signified by bread. 

13. ' to live,' &c. A well-known 1 octrine of 
the Stoics. Aet 6/xoAoyov/u,eV(o? 177 jaet £r}v. 
Cicero uses the sar^e ohrase as Hoi^.ce, in de 
Off. in. 3, 13. ? 

15. 'winters are milder.' If the phrase has 
any point at all, it must mean that in the 
country you have more freedom of choice in 
selecting a place of abode, than you have in the 
town. Comp. Od. 11. 7, 17. 

16. The 'dog-star' rises on the 20th of 
July, and the Sun enters Leo on the 23rd. 
The word 'momenta' seems rather to mean 
'influence,' (as it often does,) than ' season,' as 
some explain it. 

17. > 'full of fury;' as if made so by the 
'stinging Sun.' 

18. 'distracts.' Another reading is 'depel- 
lat'; but 'divellat' certainly seems the most 
expressive, as it is also the less common of the 
two. 

20. 'the leaden pipes' which received the 
water from the enormous aqueducts which 
supplied Rome. 

21. ' which dances noisily.' Comp. Od. 11. 

3» "• 

22. 'Why,' &c. i.e. 'We even try to re- 
produce nature in the midst of the town.' 



I. II— 13.] 



NOTES. — THE EPISTLES. 



257 



24. *ut' or 'licet* is, of course, understood 
before ' expellas ;' the other reading, 'expelles,' 
seems clearly wrong. 

26. 'to compare,' &c. That is, to distinguish 
the real Tyrian (Sidonian) purple from that 
manufactured in Italy, 'ostro' is the dative. 

28. 'his heart/ lit. 'marrow.' So in JEn. 
IV. 66; Psalm xxxi. 10. The passage means, 
that artificial knowledge on minute and tech- 
nical points is worthless, when compared with 
discernment on the great truths of natural phi- 
losophy. 

30. ' the man,' &c. Comp. Efiist. vi. be- 
ginning, 'overmuch.' See Od. 1. 18, 13, note. 

34. 'a stag,' Aristotle (Rhet. 11. 20, 5) says 
that Stesichorus employed this fable to pre- 
vent the people of Himera from accepting the 
sovereignty of Phalaris. 

40. ' in his covetousness.' See Epist. 1. 7, 
63, note. 

41. 'for ever,' 'aeternum' is an adverb, like 
'lucidum' in Od. 11. 12, 14. 

42. 'in the story,' 'olim* is often used in 
somewhat the same sense, as in Sat. 1. 1, 25. 

45. 'and not let me go,' &c. Horace cour- 
teously throws upon himself the contemplated 
possibility of becoming covetous. 

48. ' twisted rope,' i. e. simply ' twined 
rope.' The metaphor is very clear ; and it 
seems useless to attempt to identify it with the 
notion of a pulley, a cart-rope, a game, &c. 

49. 'am dictating for you,' i.e. 'am dictating 
to my amanuensis, . to be sent to you.' In 
the Latin 'was dictating:' for the Romans 
used tenses applicable to the time at which the 
letter would be read. 

Vacuna was an ancient Sabine goddess, said 
to correspond to the Roman 'Victoria.' 

50. 'Excepto' is abl. abs. 'cetera' is ace. 
of limitation. 

XI. 

1. Bullatius is otherwise unknown. 

2. *t etty Samos;' probably referring to its 
building, especially its teriple of Here. 

5. 'cities of Attalus- '' Pergamus, Tralles, 
Thyatira, Myndus. Od. I. 1, 12, note. 

6. Lebedus was one of the twelve cities of 
Ionia. It seems from the next line, that Bul- 
latius had been the comrade of Horace in the 
army of Brutus. 

7. Gabii and Fidenae were two deserted 
towns of the Prisci Latini. They are coupled 
by Virgil, <<En. vi. 773 ; and by Juvenal, x. 
100. 

10. 'the deep.' Comp. Lucretius, 11. 1. 
Here the sentiment is Stoic; 'the perfect 
man can be happy in the most desolate and 
wild of places.' 

14. ' caught cold,' lit. ' gathered cold.' So 
*sitim collegerat,' Ovid, Met. v. 446. 

17. 'in perfect soundness.' 'Incolumi' is 
here a word of the Stoic philosophy, like 'sanus' 
in 1. 1, 108. 

18. 'at midsummer,' 'aestivo ' is readily 
understood after 'solstitio.' 

'athlete's dress.' 'Campestre' fsubliga- 
culum) is lit. 'a dress for the Campus Martius.' 

19. 'August.' 1. 7, 2, note. 



22. ' bless you with,' 'fortuno' was a word 
used in religious formulas. 

23. 'from year to year,' lit. 'for a year;' 
but it seems better to explain the phrase as 
having the former sense, than as denoting an 
indefinite time. So in I. 2, 38. 

27. ' they change.' Comp. Od. 11. 16, 19. 

28. 'a vigorous idleness,' in always begin- 
ning but never achieving. 

30. 'at Ulubrse,' i.e. 'anywhere, even at 
Ulubrse.' This was a little town near the 
Pomptine marshes. It is called ' vacuse ' by 
Juvenal, x. 102. 

XII. 

1. ' Iccius.' Comparing this Epistle with 
Od. 1. 29, we see that Iccius, though a dabbler 
in philosophy, had an eye to the main chance, 
like many other philosophers. 

* Agrippa.' Probably he got these estates in 
Sicily after his defeat of Sextus Pompeius off 
the coast of Sicily. 

5. 'your digestion is good.' Horace speaks 
as one who knew what that dreadful monster, 
indigestion, was. 

7. 'nettle broth,' said to be still used in 
Scotland. 

12. ' Democritus ' of Abdera, founder of the 
atomic system. 

16. 'inquiring,' &c. Comp. Virg. jEn. 1. 
742. 

20. 'Empedocles,' a very early philosopher, 
B.C. 520, contrasted with 'Stertinius,'a modern 
and voluminous oracle of the Stoics. 

21. 'fish,' 'leeks and onions.' 'fish,' a lux- 
ury: 'leeks and onions,' common food; and, 
besides, the mention of fish alludes to Empe- 
docles, the 'leeks and onions' to Pythagoras, 
to whose philosophy Iccius may have been 
attached. 

26. ' Cantabrians,' reduced b. c. 26. 

27. 'Armenians to Claudius Nero,' i.e. 
Tiberius. Here is one of the usual exagge- 
rations of Horace and Virgil ; and generally 
the Romans were 'awful liars' about then- 
enemies. 

'Phraates on bended knee.' This 'bended 
knee ' is really too bad as an exaggeration. 

29. 'Plenty' with her cornucopia, the horn 
of Amalthea. Comp. Od. I. 17, 15. Vel- 
leius Paterculus says that when the civil wars 
of Rome were over, cultivation was restored 
to the fields, thanks to Augustus. Od. iv. 15, 4. 

XIII. 

8. ' Asina,' a poor joke. Walckenaer com- 
pares the name, Asina, Asinus, or Asinius, 
with the names Porcius, Suillius, Oilius, the 
Porkers, Swineheads, Sheepshanks of an- 
tiquity. 

14. 'Pyrrhia,' a slave of a 'ruddy' com- 
plexion, in a play of Titinius or Titinnius, a 
writer of comedies, whose date seems uncer- 
tain. Very few fragments of his plays are 
left. 

19. ' break what is entrusted to your charge,' 
i. e. ' disregard,' with a parting allusion to a 
stumbling donkey, though donkeys usually are 
sure-footed. 



HOR. 



1/ 



XIV. 

3. 'Varia,' now * Vico Varo,' on the Via 
Valeria, situated near the Anio, 'Teverone,' 
N.E. of Tibur, S.W. of Mandela, now ' Bar- 
dela,' and E. of Horace's villa. 

6. 'Lamia,* Lucius iElius, Horace's own 
dear friend, a dear friend to Numida, who 
kissed him often on his return from Biscay. 
He boasted to be descended from Lamus, 
founder of Formise, king of the Laestrygonians. 

9. ' barrier.' The figure is from the races 
of the Circus. 

16. 'my consistency.' Inconsistent Horace 
is now at last consistent in his love of the 
country. 

23 'the nook of the world.' Horace s farm 
embosomed in the hills was quite a nook. 

29. 'the stream.' The Digentia, 'Licenza,' 
which flows into the Anio near Mandela. 

33. 'grasping Cinara.' Yet he speaks, Od. 
iv. 1, 3, of 'the reign of the good Cinara.' 
Few were her days. Perhaps she is called 
'good,' as 'of the dead we should say only 
good.' By an early death, the girl escaped 
the lot of long-lived Lyce. 

36. Or it may mean, as Macleane thinks, 
' I am not ashamed to amuse myself, but should 
be, if my amusement never stopped.' 

43. ' lazy ox.' But others take ' lazy ' with 
the 'horse.' 

XV. 

1. ' Velia ' or Elea, famous for the Eleatic, 
or logical school of philosophy, a town in 
Lucania. 

' Salernum ' at the head of the gulf of Salerno, 
an important town in the middle ages. 

2. 'Baiae.' The most fashionable of water- 
ing-places, full of villas. The sea has gained 
on the shore there, and an earthquake has 
changed the look of the country. 

3. 'Antonius Musa,' who cured Augustus. 
Antonius was another of Augustus' doctors. 
Craterus too was an eminent physician of those 
times. 

4. 'bathe in cold water.' The water-cure 
was in part known before the days of Preissnitz. 

9. ' Clusiuin.' Now ' Chiusi' on the Clanis. 
Near it was the 'lacus Clusinus.' 

' Gabii,' to the east of Rome, on the lacus 
Gabinus. 

11. ' Cumse,' the most ancient of Greek 
colonies, to the north of Baiae. Narses de- 
stroyed it in the Gothic war. 

ij. 'I can put up with any wine.* So he 
tells Maecenas, Odes, I. 20, 1, he shall only 
give him cheap Sabine. 

24. 'any Phaeacian.' The Phseacians, the 
Epicureans of the heroic age, subjects of king 
Alcinous, loved feasts, music, dancing, good 
clothes, warm baths, comfortable beds. Odyss. 
viii. 248. 

26. Maenius.' See Sat. 1. 1, 101. 

XVI. 

4. 'its form and situation/ The valley in 
which was Horace's farm, visited by his ad- 
mirer, the Abbe de Chaupy, ran N.W. and 
S.E. between Mount Ustica and Rocca Giovine, 



on which was the temple of Vacuna. Through 
it ran the Digentia (Licenza). Horace's villa 
was at the upper end of the valley near this 
fountain Bandusia, just under Lucretilis hill, 
now Gennaro, on which he imagined the god 
Faunus often dwelling. Meadows were at the 
lower part of the little valley, where the Digen- 
tia joins the Anio. 

5. 'a line of hills,' i.e. as Macleane explains 
it, the range of mountains from Tibur nearly to 
Carseoli. 

13. 'Hebrus.' It seems odd of Horace, 
comparing his little stream with the great river 
of Thrace. 

16. ' September's days,' when blew the 
leaden Sirocco, the month so gainful to the 
goddess Libitina, and her undertakers. 

27. ' May Jove,' &c. said to be taken from 
Varius' panegyric on Augustus. 

49. 'my Sabine bailiff.' But some take it 
for 'a plain honest man;' for Sabine honesty 
was a proverb. Walckenaer explains it of 
Horace, 'le petit Sabin.' 

51. ^ 'the gurnard' or gurnet,' so Yonge, 
Doering, and Charpentier ; but some take it 
for the 'kite,' as do Keightley and Gargallo. 

57. 'every forum.' Macleane, in his note, 
says there were three principal fora in Rome, 
and in each at least one basilica ; and at the 
end of it a ' tribunal.' 

60. ' lovely Laverna ;' who, with Mercury, 
patronized thieves, perhaps from the same root 
as XaBelv or \aJ3elv. Thieves were called 
'laverniones ;' and there was a gate ' Laver- 
nalis ' with an altar of this respectable goddess 
near it. 

69. 'Now when you can sell.' It is hard 
to see the connection, and Keightley says there 
is none ; but Yonge, Macleane, Walckenaer, 
seem to think that Horace means, ' the man is 
no man, only good as a slave.' 

73. 'Pentheus,' from Bacchce of Euripides. 
Walckenaer says ' Voila bien la philosophic 
stoi'cienne dans toute son aprete, cette philoso- 
phic, qui faisait du suicide un devoir.' 

78. ' by which I suppose.' Horace may be 
jesting, bantering the Stoics. But it is more 
likely that the passage is serious, as Horace 
praises the suicide of Cato. 

XVII. 

8. ' Ferentinum,' on the Via Latina, 46 miles 
to the S.E. of Rome, now 'Ferentino:' but 
Walckenaer thinks it is the town N. of Rome 
in Etruria, now 'Ferento.' 

13. ' Diogenes.' The story is in Diogenes 
Laertius. 

14. 'princes.* Aristippus had been on a 
visit to Dionysius of Syracuse. 

18. 'the snarling Cynic' There is something 
remarkable in the staff, cloak, wallet, lamp, 
tub of Diogenes : but the difference is essential 
between Diogenes and St. Francis of Assisi, 
the ascetic of heathenism, and the ascetic of 
Christianity. 

30. ' of Milesian texture ;' the wool of Mile- 
tus and its dye were celebrated. 

33. ' to shew before our citizens captive 



1. 18— II. I.] 



NOTES.— THE EPISTLES. 



2 59 



foes,' alludes to the Roman triumphs, to an 
old Roman the height of glory. 

36. 'get to Corinth.' A proverb for a 
difficulty. It puzzled even the ancients. 

60. 'holy Osiris,' the Egyptian god of the 
spiritual world, of whom the bull Apis was the 
incarnation. I sis, the wife of Osiris, was a 
popular object of worship at Rome. 

XVIII. 
1. Lollius. See Odes, iv. 9, 33. 

9. 'but virtue is a mean.' The mean or 
mediocrity, dear to Horace in everything but 
poetry. 

10. ' lowest couch.' See Sat. 11. 8. 

19. 'Castor or Dolichos,' two gladiators. 
Comp. Sat. 11. 6, 44. 

20. 'the Minucian.' Oddly enough, next 
to nothing is known of this road. 

31. 'one Eutrapelus,' said to be P. Volum- 
nius, a friend of Cicero and M. Antony, those 
great enemies to one another. ' Eutrapelus ' 
means 'a gentlemanlike wit,' and reminds one 
of the made names in the Spectator, in the 
Rambler, and Law's Serious Call, and the 
Pilgrim's Progress. 

36. 'a gladiator.' In the original * Thrax.' 
See Sat. 11. 6, 44. 

41. 'Zethus and Amphion.' The hunter, 
and the musician, the rough and gentle. Com- 
pare the brothers Halbert and Edward in the 
novel of the Monastery ; and the characters of 
Esau and Jacob. 

46. '^Etolian nets,' with an allusion to 
Meleager, the iEtolian hunter of Calydon. 
The epithet reminds one of the epithets of the 
; Odes. 

56. 'that general,' Augustus. 

59. 'out of tune and harmony,' contrary to 
good taste and your station in life. ^ The 
musical words are applied to ethics, in the 
manner of Plato. 

82. 'Theon's tooth.' The Scholiast says he 
I was an abusive freedman, whom his patron 
turned out of his house, and in his will left him 
a farthing to buy a rope to hang himself. 

100. 'whether virtue is a lesson,' &c. See 
the opening of Plato's dialogue, the Meno: ' Is 
virtue a lesson, or a habit, or neither the one 
nor the other, but a gift of nature ?' 

105. ' Mandela/ now ' Bardela,' just where 
Horace's little valley opened into the more 
exposed valley of the Anio. 
; 1 12. Horace wants life and worldly means, 
but does not want grace to make him good : 
also he prays he may live for himself, not for 
others : but he was better than his creed, as 
we are worse than ours. 

XIX. 

1. 'old Cratinus,' the oldest of the three 
writers of the old Comedy. 

6. ' Homer, from his praise of wine.' Homer 
calls wine ' sweet as honey to the soul,' 'suited 
ito the taste,' ' good for a man.' 

U7. 'father Ennius.' Priscian quotes Ennius 
saying, ' Never a poet, except when gouty :' 



the gout cannot have been so bad in the da^s 
when there was no port. 

8. _ 'Libo's hallowed plot.' See Sat. 11. 6, 
An inclosure in the forum, dedicated by Sorf- 
bonius Libo, according to an order of the 
Senate, when the spot had been struck by 
lightning. See Facciolati on the word 'puteal.' 

13. ' were to ape Cato.' Compare the pro- 
verb Tabito non fa il monaco.' 

15. 'Iarbita,' said to be Cordus, a Moor, 
so called after the Moorish king Iarbas, who 
appears in the 4th Mneid. Timagenes was a 
declaimer. 

23. 'Parian Iambics.' Horace seems to 
mean his Epodes, written by him twenty years 
before. But there are Iambics in Catullus. 

25. 'Lycambes.' See Epod. 6. 13. 

30. ' father-in-law,' Lycambes of Thasos. 

31. ' bride,' Neobule. 

32. 'Alcaeus.' Horace does seem to have 
been the first Latin who wrote Alcaics. 

37. ' I hirnt not for the applause,' &c. Comp. 
Pers. I. 53, who describes similar gifts. 

40. ' to curry favour.' Horace speaks as an 
electioneerer. 

43. /Our Jove,' on earth, Augustus, 'who 
held divided empire with Jove.' 

XX. 

1. 'Vertumnus and Janus.' Horace's pub- 
lishers, the brothers Sosii, must have had their 
shop near the temples of these two gods in the 
Vicus Thurarius and the Argiletum, near the 
Forum. From Mart. Ep. 1. 3, 1, and Ep. 1. 
117, 9, it appears the booksellers lived there 
in Martial's days, a hundred years after- 
wards. 

3. 'You hate the locks and seals.' So 
Martial addresses his book : ' You prefer, sir, 
to dwell in the booksellers' shops, though there 
is plenty of room in my writing-case.' 

5. 'Well then, off with you.' So Martial: 
'Off with you, self-willed one, fly through the 
ethereal breezes.' 

7. 'when severely criticised.' So Martial 
again to his book: 'You know not, alas! you 
know not, the disdain of Lady Rome ; be sure 
that the city of Mars knows too much for such 
as you.' 

13. 'Ilerda,' now 'Lerida.' Here the Pom- 
peians were beaten by Caesar. (See Civ. II ~ar, 
1. 37.) It was a municipium. In after days 
it was the Salamanca of Arragon. In the 
Peninsular war it was the scene of horrid cruelty 
by the French. 

27. 'my forty-fourth December.' He was 
born on the 8th of December, B.C. 6$. 

28. 'Lollius received Lepidus.' In this 3 
(b.c. 21) Lollius was chosen consul with Augus- 
tus. Augustus declined: then Lepidus was 
appointed. 

BOOK II. 

I. 

An Epistle, as Macleane remarks, with 
'much polish in its versification;' as, of COO 
has its imitation by Pope. 



260 



HORACE. 



[II. i. 



3. 'gracing it by morals/ This alludes to 
the laws of Augustus about marriage, and his 
sumptuary laws. 

5. 'Liber,' confounded with Dionysus, or 
Bacchus, who was one of the civilisers of 
Greece. Paley, on Fasti iv. 785, connects the 
name ' Liber' with libation. Cicero says he was 
so called, as a 'child' of Ceres. 

10. 'He who crushed.' Hercules. 

23. 'the Twelve Tables,' the foundation of 
Roman law, B.C. 452. 

24. 'the treaties,' such as those made with 
the town of Gabii by Tarquinius Superbus. 

26. ' books of the priests,' as annales maximi ; 
these are among the sources of early Roman 
history. 

28. 'the oldest writings of the Greeks.' This 
must mean Homer, and hardly any other 
author. 

31. 'The olive has no stone,' &c. ; a kind of 
'reductio ad absurdum.' 

45. 'the hairs of a horse-tail.' The com- 
mentators think that Horace refers to the story 
of the horse's tail in the life of Sertorius. 

47. 'like a sinking heap.' There must here 
be. an allusion to the argument called 'sorites.' 

51. 'seems to trouble himself but little;' so 
careless is he as a writer. Others explain ; 'he 
need not care.' 

52. 'his dream.' Persius, Sat. vi. 10, also 
laugb.£ at Ennius' dream, told in the opening of 
his Annals. He was the Roman Homer who 
had passed through the body of a peacock, after 
Pythagoras' fashion. 

53. 'Nsevius/ B.C. 235, wrote of the Punic 
war in Saturnian rhythm, libelled the Metelli, 
had served in the 1st Punic war, wrote also 
tragedies and comedies. 

56. 'Pacuvius,' B.C. 190; sister's son of 
Ennius; scorned Euripides, then the popular 
poet, and would only translate iEschylus and 
Sophocles. 

'Accius,' B.C. 170; rather ' Attius,' was fond- 
est of ^schylus ; he also wrote ' prsetextatae,' 
i. e. historical plays like those of Shakspeare. 

57. 'Afranius,' B.C. 100. He was thought 
to be the Roman Menander. 

58. 'Plautus,' B.C. 220. His plays, though 
not so elegant as those of Terence, are more 
lively and bustling. 

' Epicharmus,' of Cos, B.C. 490, was at 
Gelon's and Hiero's court with Pindar : wrote 
comedies, and is called the inventor of Comedy. 

59. 'Csecilius,' B.C. 200, was a slave, like 
Terence. The verses of Vulcatius found in 
Aulus Gellius give him the palm of comic Latin 
writers. 

'Terence' of Carthage; B.C. 165. 

62. 'Livius' Andronicus, B.C. 240, made 
an abridgment of the Odyssey, and wrote tra- 
gedies represented on a stage in the circus. 

68. 'Jove sanctions my judgment.' Or, 
'Jove keeps me from a mistake.' 

71. 'Orbilius,' of Beneventum ; once a 
soldier; began to teach when he was 50, when 
many stop ; wrote a book to complain of parents ; 
got more fame than money: Domitius Marsus 
also mentions his cane and birch. 



79. 'Atta's play.' Atta, b.c 90, wrote 
comedies. 

'saffron,' with which the stage was sprinkled. 

62. 'dignified iEsopus,' would then be like 
our stately Kemble. Cicero calls him a master 
in his art. 

'Roscius;' so good, that whoever was good 
at anything, was called a Roscius in it. They 
were both contemporaries and friends of 
Cicero. 

86. 'song of the Salii,' priests of Mars on 
the Quirinal, famous for their banquets, dances, 
hymns. Quintilian says that even the Salii 
themselves hardly understood it, it was so old. 
_ 93. 'wars.' Horace must mean the Per- 
sian wars. Unluckily, Greece never put wars 
aside, till liberty was lost. Also by 'Greeks' 
Horace must mean Athenians. 

no. 'dictate verses.' We should say 'write 
verses ;' but the ancients hardly ever took the 
trouble to write, but dictated to their slave, 
the amanuensis. Comp. Rom. xvi. 22, 'I, 
Tertius, who wrote this epistle.' 

112. 'more lies than the Parthians.' The 
Parthians had taken the place of ' Punic faith' 
in Roman language. No doubt if Hannibal 
had succeeded, we should have had ' Roman 
faith ' instead. 

1 14. ' southernwood,' a fragrant plant. 

132. 'hymns of prayer,' such as the Secular 
Hymn. 

134. * the chorus,' of youths and girls, 
thrice nine of each. 

135. 'implores rain from above.' Sacred 
rites were in use at Rome to pray for rain in 
time of drought. Outside the gate Capena 
was a stone called ' manalis,' which they used 
to bring inside the gate to fetch rain from the 
skies. See note in Delphin edition. 

_ 138. 'gods below,' especially at the Lemu- 
ria, on the 9th of May. See Ov. Fast. v. 421. 

139. 'our rural ancestors.' Comp. Virg. 
Georg. 11. 385 ; Tibull. Eleg. 11. 1, 55. On 
which passage Gerlach remarks that ' in those 
old days the sparks of genius were kindled by 
the worship of the gods; and among the 
Latins the use of masks and alternate verses 
encouraged especially dramatic poetry;' in 
which however the Latins were not destined 
to attain to any great excellence: the best j 
dramatic poetry of the Romans is to be found 
really in Horace's Satires. 

145. ' Fescennine licence.' See Liv. vil. 2. 
These are the 'unpolished verses,' spoken of 
by Virgil, and the 'rustic words' mentioned by 1 
Tibullus. They were used especially at wed- 
dings. Fescennia was a town in Etruria. Au- I 
gustus himself, who Was a joking man, though 
his jokes are bad, so far as we know, is said to 
have written some verses of this kind. The 
third eclogue of Virgil is perhaps something i 
like them. See, too, Sat. 1. 5, 32, and 7, 28, j 
where the man of Praeneste indulges in Fescen- \ 
nine licence, but meets his match in the Greek. 

149. 'honourable families,' i. e- honoured 1 
with the names of those who had held curule i 
offices. 

154. ' death by cudgelling,' a severe punish- j 



II. 2.] 



NOTES.— THE EPISTLES. 



261 



ment for such an offence; but barbarous are 
the punishments of a barbarous age. 

158. ' Saturnian measure.' Macaulay has 
compared it to our nursery rhymes. It was 
an iambic verse with a syllable at the end, or 
it may be called a trochaic verse with a syllable 
before, or it may be regarded as two verses, 
the first iambic, the second trochaic. The 
oldest known specimen is the carmen Saliare, 
called Axamenta, as written on ' axibus,' that 
is, on boards. 

165. ' were satisfied ;' judging from the re- 
mains that have come down to us, we should 
say they were easily satisfied with themselves. 

173. 'Dossennus.' The Scholiast says a 
writer of Atellanse, i. e. farces performed in 
Oscan; but it is thought by K. O. Muller, 
Keightley, and Yonge, that his name may be 
that of a character in a play of that stamp. 
In that case ' in' would mean 'among.' 

194. ' Democntus,' the laughing philoso- 
pher. 

202. 'Garganus,' in Apulia. 

207. 'Tarentine dye.' Tarentum, on the 
east coast, and Baiae on the west, were both 
famous for the dye made of the juice of a 
certain shell-fish. The colour is lost. 

216. 'gifts worthy of Apollo;' the library 
which Augustus had added to the temple built 
by him to Apollo on the Palatine. 

230. 'the guardians of a virtue.' The poets 
who were to be entrusted with the glories of 
Augustus are here compared to the public 
guardians of the temples. 

232. * Alexander the Great/ who had not 
such good taste in literature as Augustus. 

233. 'Choerilus/ who, Plutarch and Q. 
Curtius say, accompanied Alexander in his ex- 
peditions to record his exploits, receiving 
philips for his good verses, stripes for his bad 
ones, and getting more stripes. 

239. 'Apelles,' of Cos, flourished B.C. 330; 
mentioned by Cicero with Zeuxis and Aglao- 
phon. His picture of Venus Anadyomene, 
considered the model of his graceful style, 
was purchased by Augustus. 

240. _ ' Lysippus,' of Sicyon, a statuary of 
such diligence, as to leave behind him 1500 
pieces. The chariot of the Sun at Rhodes 
was one of his greatest works. He is men- 
tioned by Cicero with Myron and Polycletus. 

244. ' Boeotia's dull atmosphere,' contrasted 
with that of Attica. Dr Parr was pleased to 
call Warwickshire the Bceotia of England, 
* which produced Shakspeare, and was effete.' 

269. ' carried down.' Because the Tuscan 
street, where the poor lived in Rome, was near 
the river. There stood the temple of Ops. 

II. 

r. 'good and great Nero.' Tiberius, after- 
wards Emperor. He is highly praised by Vel- 
leius Paterculus for his beauty, noble form, 
his abilities and character, 11. 94. 

15. 'under the stairs;' or it may be 'the 
whip hanging up under the stairs.' 

26. 'In Lucullus' army.' Keightley says 



that Beaumont and Fletcher founded their play 
of the Humorous Lieutenant in part on this 
story. 

44. 'to distinguish right from wrong.' Lite- 
rally ' crooked from straight,' morally; though 
some think that geometry is here meant, to 
which Plato attached much importance. 

45. ' Academus' grove ;' whence Plato's fol- 
lowers were called the Academic sect. 

55. 'the years.' Horace was now about 
54. He had three years more to live. 

60. 'like Bion's;' who flourished B.C. 270, 
a different man from the bucolic poet. 

68. 'Quirinal,' 'Aventine.' The Quirinal 
was in the northern part of Rome, the Aven- 
tine in the southern, with the Circus Maximus, 
the Forum, the Palatine, between them. 

81. 'a genius,' &c. Walckenaer thinks 
Horace here describes himself with the shy 
habits of a student. But Horace was not 
anything like seven years at Athens. 

89. 'a Gracchus,' an orator like Tiberius 
or Caius. 'a Mucius' Scaevola; learned in 
the law. 

105. 'without requital.' Compare the open- 
ing lines of Juvenal. 

no. 'an upright censor.' Keightley thinks 
that Horace here has a reference "to the 
purgations of the senate made by Augustus." 
The terms are chosen with great skill so as 
to apply at once to the senators and to words. 

114. 'shrine of Vesta.' The soul of the 
poet, compared to the shrine, into which none 
but the Vestals entered. 

117. 'Cato and Cethegus.' Cato the cen- 
sor ; and M. Cornelius Cethegus, according to 
Cicero, {Brutus, xv. 57,) the first known to 
have been an orator in Rome, of whom Ennuis, 
quoted by Cicero, says, in his 9th book of 
Annals, that he was 'as a culled flower of 
excellence, and the very heart of the goddess 
of persuasion.' 

128. 'There lived one,' &c. A like story 
is told by Ollian, in Athena^us, by Pseud. - 
Aristotle ; and, Orelli says, by Huarte, a 
Spanish author. The passage is imitated by 
Boileau, Sat. IV. 103, and by Pope. Boileau 
ends with the line, 'En me tirant d'erreur 
m'ote du paradis.' 

.144. ' to master the harmonies ;' i. e. to study 
philosophy, which should be to the old what 
poetry is to the young. 

146. 'If no draughts of water,' &c. ; now 
he is addressing himself, not his friend Florus. 

158. 'legal purchase,' literally 'scales and 
brass;' for the buyer touched the 'scales' with 
a piece of money. 

170. 'the poplar planted ;' which would be 
sacred to the god Terminus. 

177. 'rows of houses.' The meaning of 
the word 'vicus,' which is applicable to the 
country and town alike. It seems, with refer- 
ence to a town, to be used of streets, and of 
quarters of a city. In the country, it is used 
as the part of a 'pagus.' See Forcellini on 
the word. The Italian is 'borgo.' 

180. 'Tuscan images ;' 'little bronze images 
of the gods.' 



i8i. 'African,' in the original 'Gaetulian,' 
the people to the south of Mauritania. 

184. 'palm groves of Herod,' the Great, 
the friend of Antony; he had groves of palms 
about Jericho, ' the city of palms,' which 
brought him wealth. Compare Virg. Georg. 
in. 12. 

187. ' the genius-god,' partly identified with 
the man, partly independent. Yonge compares 
Spenser /''. Qu. II. 12, 47. See Ep. 11. 1, 144. 



197. 'in the holidays;' the Quinquatria, 
five days sacred to Minerva, beginning on the 
19th of March. See Ovid, Fasti, 809 — 850 ; 
where we see the goddess is at once a goddess 
of learning and of scholars, and also of war and 
blood. 

21Q. ' do you count your birthdays ;' as we 
should say, 'are you thankful for the years you 
have had, and looking forward to the end of 
life with contentment t 



THE ART OF POETRY. 



18. 'river Rhine.' It is likely here the 
reference is to Furius, who made the Rhine so 
muddy. Sat. I. 10, 37. 

19. 'can paint a cypress.' Said to allude 
to a Greek proverb : ' What, do you want a 
cypress too?' 

32. 'near the school of iEmilius.' A school 
of gladiators. 

' an ordinary artist.' Others read ' imus,' the 
'lowest;' either in skill, or having his shop 
lowest down. 

45, 46. These two lines are transposed in 
the editions. 

50. 'old-fashioned,' literally 'girt' in the 
lower part of the body, with the arms free. 
'Cethegi.' See Ep. 11. 2, 117. 

54. ' Csecilius.' See Ep. II. I, 59. 

56. 'Cato.' See Ep. 11. 2, 117. 

60. 'at each year's fall.' But others take 
it 'as the years swiftly pass.' See Odes, iv. 

6, 39- 

64. 'Neptune be received,' alludes to the 
'portus Julius' made by Agrippa in honour of 
Augustus, near Baise, before the expedition 
against Sextus Pompeius, B.C. 37. 

65. 'the marsh;' perhaps the Pomptine 
marshes. 

67. 'the river;' perhaps an exaggeration of 
what Augustus did in clearing out the Tiber. 

77. ' who was the inventor of these elegiacs.' 
Tyrtseus was one of the earliest writers of 
elegiacs. 

79. 'Archilochus.' See Epod. 6. 13. 

83. 'to the lyre.' Here, as in Odes,iv. 2, 
he seems to refer to the subjects of Pindar's 
Odes, most of which are lost. (1) mythology, 
(2) the games, (3) love, (4) wine : to which is to 
be added the 'dirge for the dead;' 21st line of 
Ode iv. 2. 

91. 'Thyestean banquet.' Varius wrote a 
tragedy called Thyestes; which Quintilian. x. 
1, 98, thought would stand comparison with 
any Greek author, but Niebuhr not unnaturally 
doubts this. See Odes, 1. 6, 8. 

94. ' Chremes,' the father in the comedy. > 

96. 'Telephus.' Of him said Euripides, in 
his play laughed at by Aristophanes : 



' For I to-day must needs for beggar pass, 

And, being what I am, another seem.' 

'Peleus.' At this play also Aristophanes 
laughs. 

101. 'As human countenances,' &c. Comp. 
Rom. xii. 15. 

114. 'god.' Others read ' Davus.' But 
Horace appears here to be speaking only of 
tragedy. Compare 227. 

A 'god' would be further removed from the 
world than a hero. Compare Hercules, a hero 
in the Trachinice, with Hercules, a god in the 
Philoctetes. 

116. 'bustling nurse,' a favourite character 
on the Greek stage. In the Choephora* the 
nurse is natural and half comic, and is like one 
in ordinary life. So in Romeo and Juliet. 

120. 'illustrious Achilles.' Bentley proposes 
to read 'Homeric Achilles.' This emendation 
is a good sample of the great cleverness and 
great rashness of Bentley. 

121. 'as one restless,' &c. Mr. Gladstone, 
on Homer, objects to this description of 
Achilles: but the Achilles of Mr Gladstone is 
taken, not from Homer, but from Mr Gladstone's 
own inner consciousness. 

123. 'Ino'with her son, Melicerta, threw 
herself into the sea. About 24 short fragments 
of Euripides' 1 710 are extant. 

124. 'Ixion.' ^Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripi- 
des, all wrote a play of this name. In the play 
of iEschylus was this line, 'Death is more 
glorious than an evil life.' 

129. 'dividing the subject of the Iliad* 
The only remaining Greek play taken directly 
from the story of the Iliad is the Rhesus. 

132. 'trite and obvious circle of events,' i.e. 
generalities open to any poet. 

135. 'shame.' Keightley explains it 'of 
respect for the original poet ;' Orelli, of being 
laughed at by the audience. It may mean 
simply the shame of confessing a failure. 

136. 'Cyclic writer.' The Cyclic writers 
were so calle I by the grammarians of Alex- 
andria in the second century before Christ. 
The Iliad and Odyssey were in the cycle. 
But, as most of the poems were inferior, they 



NOTES.— THE ART OF POETRY. 



263 



were separated from the two great poems, and 
became a byword for badness. 

140. 'acted he,' i. e. Homer, at the opening 
of the Odyssey. 

145. ' Antiphates,' &c. ; all of these are parts 
of the Odyssey. 

146. 'return of Diomede,' as in the Cyclic 
poem called 'The Returns. 5 

147. 'the twin eggs' of Leda, as in the 
Cypria of Stasinus. 

148. 'into the middle of events.' Homer is 
followed in this by Virgil, Tasso, Milton, 
Camoens. 

155. 'Please, sirs, to applaud.' So always 
end the plays of Plautus and Terence. ' chants ;' 
for the actors used to chant. See Livy, vn. 2. 
So Cicero, speaking of the actors in the play of 
Afra?iius, calls them 'chanters.' 

156. 'characteristics of each age.' Horace 
here seems to follow Aristotle, Rhet. 11. 12, 
and is closely followed by Boileau, L'Art 
Poetique, Chant in. 390: 'Le temps, qui 
change tout,' &c. Shakspeare, As you like 
it, n. 7, is of course original, and far superior 
to the Greek, Latin, and French writers. 

161. 'guardian.' the paedagogus, or slave 
who accompanied the boy, and from whom he 
was freed, when he put on the toga virilis. 
See Galat. in. 24, 25. 

175. 'Many blessings.' This is added in a 
melancholy tone, and in keeping with Horace's 
turn of mind. 

179. 'reported.' Hence the important part 
which the 'messenger' hed in Greek plays, in 
this point very unlike ours. 

180. 'Now, less keenly,' &c. It is as if 
Horace felt the truth on this point, but did not 
venture to go against the established custom. 

186. 'Atreus.' Of this play of Sophocles 
only one fragment is extant. 

187. 'Procne,' in the play of Sophocles 
called 'Tereus,' alluded to in the Birds of 
Aristophanes, 1. 100. One fragment, describ- 
ing the unhappy lot of women, has merit 
in it. 

'Cadmus.' According to Probus on Virg. 
Eclog. 6. 31, there was a play of Euripides of 
this name. 

189. 'five acts.' The plays of Euripides 
are so divided in the Variorum Edition, 
Glasguse, 1821, but Aristotle's division was 
into the prologos, epeisodia, and exodos ; and 
the 'five acts' is altogether a later idea. 

191. 'Nor let a god intermeddle.' In the 
plays of Euripides, the gods are often most un- 
necessary and undignified intermeddlers. 

195. 'save what advances,' &c. Here too 
Euripides is an offender, but his choruses are 
often so very beautiful, that we may well pardon 
his offence. 

196. 'let the chorus support the good.' A 
remarkable exception to this precept is found 
in the Antigo?ie. no doubt to bring out more 
strongly the pious courage of the maiden. 

197. 'and restrain the angry ;' as in CEdipus 
Rex. 

'and love those that fear to sin.' But another 
reading gives 'and love to appease the haughty.' 



This reading of Bentley's is followed by Orelli, 
Keightley, Yonge. 

200. 'let it keep secrets,' as in the Chne- 
phorce, Electra, Medea, Hippolytus. 

202. ' The flute,' &c. It is hard to tell here 
how far Horace follows history. 

203. 'with few holes.' Macleane says those 
in the British Museum have six. 

208. 'embraced the city.' What city? 
Athens, or Rome? It is hard to say. But 
some MSS. have the plural ' cities.' 

210. 'his Genius.' See Ep. 1. 7, 94, note, 
and Ep. n. 1, 144. 

215. 'train,' called 'syrma,' from the Greek 
word 'to draw.' 

219. 'saws of wisdom,' found often in the 
chorus in iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides: 
in the two first rather religious, in the last 
rather philosophic. 

221. 'wild Satyrs.' The Satyric dramas, 
entirely different from comedies, were very 
likely the oldest form of the drama, and were 
afterwards joined to the tragic trilogy. See 
Paley's introduction to the Cyclops of Euri- 
pides, the only Satyric drama now extant. 

227. 'any god or hero.' As Silenus, the 
Satyrs, Ulysses, in the Cyclops. 

232. 'as matron bid to dance.' Keightley 
quotes the Scholiast: 'for there are certain 
holy rites in which matrons dance, as in those 
of the Mother of the gods.' Od. n. 12, 17. 

237. ' Davus,' the slave of Comedy. ' Davus 
am I, no CEdipus.' 

239. Silenus, 'god of the wine-vat,' was 
bald, old, red-faced, head of the Satyrs ; 
Bacchus was his darling and trouble. When 
his ass brayed, the Titans fled. 

244. ' The Fauns,' ' the speaking gods,' 
here are confounded with the Satyrs, Latin 
gods with Greek. Horace says they should 
not on the stage either mince like city fops, or 
talk in low language, like rabble. 

249. 'roasted chick-peas.' Keightley says 
'cecio fritto,' 'fried chick-pea,' is a term of 
abuse, as we use 'chaw-bacon,' and Sancho is 
called 'harto de ajos,' stuffed with garlic. 

252. 'a rapid foot.' Comp. Od. 1. 16, 
24. Horace says the swiftness of the foot 
made it seem a trimeter, though it really had 
six feet. But the iambic ' metre ' = 2 feet. 

254. 'But not so very long ago.' This is 
puzzling, as spondees appear in the verses of 
Archilochus, 600 years before Horace. 

256. 'The Iambic' It is here personified, 
as one light and airy, together with its grave 
steady friend the Spondee. 

259. 'much vaunted trimeters.' This is 
spoken ironically. 

262. 'The Iambic lays upon them.' The 
Iambic speaks as one, whose feelings are hurt 
by the neglect of spondaic Ennius, who was 
satisfied with one iambic in a line ; such a line 
is this of Ennius, 'Curtalem invitiim invitam 
cogis linquere?' of which the Iambic has good 
grounds to complain. 

265. 'Shall I then write loosely?' &c. 
Yonge well explains it thus: 'Shall I write 
carelessly, because readers have no ear, or 



264 



HORACE. 



because they are indifferent, and will excuse 
it?' 

270. 'rhythm and wit of Plautus.' Varro, 
Cicero, Gellius, judged very differently. Niebuhr 
says 'how Horace could have been blind to the 
merits of Plautus, is inconceivable ;' not more 
so, than how Niebuhr could have judged 
Horace and Virgil as he has done. We are but 
bad judges one of another, even in literature. 

275. 'Thespis.' This drama was made up 
of hymns in honour of Bacchus, with one or 
two monologues inserted to give the chorus a 
rest. Solon was a spectator, when Thespis 
herself gesticulated, using the trochaic metre. 
Horace has omitted Phrynichus, who first wrote 
plays on graver events, as on ' the capture of 
Miletus.' 

277. 'faces smeared with lees of wine ;' the 
rpvyoSatfioveg of Aristophanes, 'des diables 
barbouilles de lie.* See the note in Delphin 
edition. 

280. 'magnificent diction.' The 'grand 
words,' Aristoph. Frogs, 1004. 

283. 'the law was submitted to.' Schlegel 
says he cannot agree with Horace ; but thinks 
that the old comedy flourished and died with 
Athenian freedom. 

288. ' tragedies or comedies on Roman sub- 
jects.' Such were the Brutus and Decius 
of Accius. Ennius' tragedies were all on Greek 
subjects, as were the comedies of Terence and 
Plautus of a Greek character. 

291. 'the blood of Numa.' For the Pisos 
claimed descent from Numa Pompilius, as a 
gentleman in England, now alive, does from 
the Emperor Maximinus. 

301. 'the barber Licinus,' of whom, the 
Scholiast says, it was written 'of marble is 
Licinus' tomb ; Cato has none, Pompey a hum- 
ble one : who can believe in the gods ?' 

302. 'as spring comes on.' So, blood usecf 
to be let in spring. 

304. ' of a whetstone.' Isocrates used the 
same simile. 

322. ' prettily sounding trifles.' So Aristoph. 
Frogs, 1005, 'tragic trifles.' 

327. 'Albums.' The Scholiast says he was 
an usurer. 

332. ' oil of cedar,' ' cypress.' Pliny says 
that thus things were protected against decay 
and moths. 

340. 'ogress,* 'Lamise.' They had the face 
of a lady, the feet of a donkey. The word is 
connected with Lemures, larva, Aajuupo?. See 
Paley on Ov. Fast. v. 41, who compares 
'goblin' and 'gobble.' 

342. 'knights,' 'Ramnes.' See Livy, 1. 
13. 

345. publishers = ' Sosii.' See Efi. 1. 20, 2. 

357. 'a second Chcerilus.' See Ep. 11. 1, 
232. 

359. 'Homer sometimes nods.' What parts 
of his poems Horace alludes to, it is hard to say. 
Glaucus' speech in Iliad 6th, and ./Eneas' in 
the 20th book are wearisome and long-wind- 
ed. 

366. ' O elder youth.' This is the one who 
was assassinated when praetor in Spain. 



371. ' Messala,' Corvinus. See Cd. 111. 2:, 
7 ; Sat. 1. 6, 42 ; Sat. I. 10, 28, 85. 

'Aulus Cascellius.' He refused to draw up 
the legal form for the proscriptions of Antony 
and Augustus. He was famous for law, bons 
mots, freedom of speech. But there were two, 
father and son. See Walckenaer, vol. 1. 461. 

373. 'booksellers.' Literally 'columns.' See 
Sat. 1. 4, 71. Judging from Martial, I. 117, 11, 
it would seem that these columns, pillars, or 
door-posts, were covered with the names of 
books sold in the shop. 

375. ' bitter honey.' Literally ' Sardinian ;' 
the opposite of that of Hybla. 

385. 'against the bent of your genius.' Lite- 
rally ' with Minerva unwilling :' so the Romans 
said 'coarse Minerva,' 'heavy Minerva,' 'my 
Minerva,' 'a man of every Minerva.' 

387. 'before Mascius.' See Sat. 1. 10, 38. 

388. 'kept back for nine years.' So Cinna 
did not publish his Smyrna for nine years ; 
Cat. 95 : and Isocrates kept back his Pa?ie- 
gyric for the same time; Quintil. x. 4. Perhaps 
this accounts for its artificial style. Menage, a 
witty Frenchman, speaking of a book long kept 
back, said, 'long has the maiden been expected, 
and now that she appears she is quite an old lady.' 

394. 'Amphion.' See Odyss. xi. 261, where 
Amphion and Zethus are builders of the common 
kind, not to the sound of the lyre. Pausanias, 
ix. 5, 4, says he had been taught the Lydian 
harmony by Tantalus. 

m 399. ' tablets of wood ;' on which, called 
a£oi/e?, were written Solon's laws. 

402. 'Tyrtaeus,' B.C. 680, the lame school- 
master, whose spear was his song. But it is a 
great fall from Homer to Tyrtaeus. 

403. ' oracles were delivered in verse,' usually 
hexameters, as so often in Herodotus. Pliny 
says 'we owe the heroic verse to the Pythian 
god,' not to Homer. 

404. ' of princes ;' as those at Syracuse, 
Larissa, &c. 

418^ 'and to confess,' &c. 'So,' says the 
Delphin editor, 'the troublesome and fatal 
race of bad poets multiplies among the children 
of men.' 

431. 'as hired mourners.' So Lucilius: 'the 
women hired weep much at the funeral of a 
stranger, and tear their hair, and cry louder 
and louder.' See St Mark v. 38. This is the 
Irish 'keening.' Our mutes are mute, as be- 
comes the English character. 

434. ' Patrons.' Literally 'kings.' They 
are so called as early as the time of Plautus. 
Stick, in. 2, i. So Mart. 11. 18, 8. 'A man 
who is a king, O greatest of kings, ought not 
to be under another king.' 

438. 'Quintilius.' He had a villa at Tibur, 
and was a friend of Virgil. He had probably 
been dead nearly 20 years, when Horace thus 
remembers him. We may imagine that Virgil 
and Horace both consulted him on their verses, 
as did other poets of a different kind. This 
simple sincerity [Od. 1. 24, 7) would help to 
make him a good critic. 

450. 'second Aristarchus,' 160 B.C. At Alex- 
andria he educated the sons of Ptolemy. He 



NOTES— THE ART OF POETRY. 



2 6: 



did not spare Homer himself, and time has not 
spared one of his 800 commentaries. He was 
the Scaliger of antiquity. See the excellent 
Delphin note. 

453. 'the jaundice.' Literally the 'regal 
malady.' i/cTepo?. 

454. 'Diana's wrath.' As the goddess of 
the moon, the reputed cause of madness. 

465. ' Empedocles,' of Agrigentum, the Greek 
Lucretius, b c. 440 a Pythagorean, who was 
first a girl, then a boy, a shrub, a bird, a fish, 
and finally Empedocles. So he had a wide 
experience. Milton, P. L. ill. 469. 

'cold blood.' Either knowing what he did, 



or with an allusion to his own opinion, that cold 
blood makes men dull, or, simply, because he 
was cold, and wanted to be warm ; or the word 
is merely used to make a comic antithesis to 
'burning Etna.' 

471. 'accursed plot,' 'bidental.' A place 
struck by lightning, 'fulguritus.' It was puri- 
fied with the blood of sheep, 'bidentes,' on 
which word Aulus Gellius gossips much. Od. 
in. 23, T4, note. 

474. 'kills by his recitation.' The bores of 
these days, of whom Horace had a special 
dread. See Martial, Hi. 44, of one Ligurinus, 
round whom there was a solitude. 



INDEX. 



\The references are to the pages.] 



A. 

Academy, Horace seeker after the truth in, 3, 

196 
Accius, (old Roman poet,) tragedies of, 128 ; 

sublime, 190; much vaunted trimeters of, 212. 
./Eschylus, lessons he could teach, 193 ; Horace 

could hardly enter into the spirit of, 205 ; in- 
ventor of robe and mask, 213 
Agrippa, Ode to, 30 ; the applause which he 

gets, 140; his colonnade, 170; his rents in 

Sicily, victories over Cantabrians, 177 
Alcseus, Lesbian citizen, 21, 40; introduced by 

Horace, 22, 187; sounding in fuller tone, 50; 

threatening verses of, 80 ; uses measures of 

Archilochus, 187 ; a second, 198 
Alcaics, grave and stately, 22 ; sometimes 

lighter, 22 
Alps, Rhsetian, 76 ; castles set upon, 83 ; wintry, 

147 ; summits of, 92 
Ambition, a form of madness, 140 ; wretched, 

114; perverse, 137; vain, 200 
Amphion, apt pupil of Mercury, 62 ; gave way 

to his brother, 187 ; founder of the Theban 

city, 215 
Anacreon, time does not destroy his songs, 80; 

of Teos, 98 ; lute of, 35 
Antony (Mark), only mentioned once, 118 
Apennines, scenery of, 1 ; lofty, 99 
Apollo (Phoebus), diviner, 28; bereft _ of his 

quiver, 32 ; does not always bend his bow, 

48; augur dear to Muses, 88; rescued Horace 

from a bore, 127; on the Palatine, 168; 

gives Horace inspiration, 78 ; teacher of 

Thalia, 78 ; sharply warned Horace, 83; wall 

of Troy creation of, 57 ; Horace chorister of, 

88 ; his unerring shaft, 32 ; temple with 

niches, 197 
Appian Road, journey along, with towns on, 

117; to what travellers not so tiresome, 117 ; 

nags travelling along, 94 ; is it the best road 

to Brundusium? 184 
Apulia, scenery of, 1, 58 ; wolves of, 41 ; land 

of ploughed, 65 ; industrious swain of, 93 ; 

Horace half belonged to, 131 
Archilochus, of Paros, 89 ; iambic used by, 

91 ; his writings bitterer than gall, lampoons, 

103 ; attendant of Horace to his retirement, 

136; metres and spirit of, 187 
Aristippus, threw away his gold, 138 ; easy 

maxims of, 163; dialogue between him and 

Cynic Diogenes, 182 
Arnold August, his life of Horace, 4; his 

opinion of Horace's philosophy, 12 



Art of Poetry, Introduction to, 200; not arti- 
ficial, 202 ; compared with Boileau's, 203 ; 
and with Pope's Essay on Criticism, 204; 
its merits, 205 

Athens, kindly, 2, 196; a scholar at, 3, 159; 
a genius at, 197 

Aufidus, representative stream, 1 ; impetuous, 
73, 108; echoing afar, 108; bull-shaped, 83 

Augustus, rebellions against, senseless, 10; Ho- 
race's eulogies of, excessive, 11; simple in 
habits, 11; outward honours paid to, 11, 12; 
his five wars, 12; Maecenas dying commends 
Horace to, 18 : his familiar letters to Horace, 
19 ; urges Horace to write, 19 ; Horace 
named him as heir, 20; odes of compliment 
to, 24 ; in the form of Mercury, 28 ; second 
only to Jove, 33 ; prayers for, 42, 77; Muses 
refresh, 58 ; return of from Spain, 64; triumph 
of over Sygambri, 75 ; fatherly spirit of to 
Neros, 76 ; virtues of, 83 ; panegyric of, 84 ; 
descendant of Anchises and Venus, 88 ; re- 
wards treachery, 90 ; his victory at Actium, 
96 ; exploits of, 130 ; imperial sway of, 177 ; 
poems sent to, 177 ; praises due to, 181 ; 
introductory compliment to, 19, 189; had 
better taste than Alexander the Great, 195 

Autumn, many -coloured, 46; fruit-bearing, 
79 ; with a goodly crown, 93 ; bringing gain 
to Death, 150; weather not to be trusted in, 

70. 

Avarice, its blindness, 52 ; a form of madness, 
138; ruling passion strong in death, 139; no 
one can lay it to Horace's charge, 121 ; many 
troubled by, 114; bosom boils with, 164 

Aventine, sacred to Diana, 88 ; friend ill at the 
extremity of, 197 

B. 

Bacchus, two Odes to ; one, 53 ; dithyrambic, 
69; his tigers, 56; the temperate lord of 
wine, 38; Thebes made glorious by, 30; 
delights in sleep and shade, 197 

Baiae, sea that roars against, 53 ; limpid, 58 ; 
no bay in the world outshines, 165 ; useless 
for Horace's health, 179 

Beauty, melts hearts of lords, 45 ; faithlessness 
does not mar, 47 ; brighter than a star, 62 ; 
resolve will not give way to, 99; gift of to 
poet Tibullus, 168 ; Lady Money bestows, 
170: philosopher alone possesses, 113 ; youth- 
ful, well loved, graceful, winning, fleeting, 82. 

Beranger, in some points inferior to Horace, 



INDEX. 



267 



Boileau, his common sense, 8 ; flattered Louis 
XIV, 12, his Art of Poetry, 203; close imi- 
tator of Horace, 203 ; called admirable by- 
Voltaire, 304 ; lacks variety of style, 204 ; 
sensible, witty, terse, 205 

Bore, Crispinusone, 113; Horace beset by one, 
125 ; Nasidienus one, 157 ; Horace thinks he 
was one at times to Maecenas, 112; Horace's 
supposed horror of being one, 202 

Britons, at the limit of the world, 42 ; cruel 
to strangers, 58; when united to Roman 
empire, 59 ; ocean roars against, 83 ; as yet 
untouched by war, 96 

Brums, commander of the field, 47 ; Horace 
served in army of, 123 

Burns, superior to Horace in passion, 25 

Butler, Dr, of Shrewsbury, his enthusiasm for 
Horace, 7 

Byron, admirer of Pope, 162 ; his hints from 
Horace, 204; says he hated Horace, 205 ; 
yet describes him well, 205 

C. 

Cseoilius, excelled in dignity, 190; liberty 
granted to, 207 

Calabria, its goodly herds, 40 ; creeks of, 41 ; 
bees of, 65; Muses of, 80; cattle change 
pastures of for Lucanian, 92 ; story of a cer- 
tain host of, 172 

Camillus, produced by penury, 33 ; manly, 164 

Canidia, (Gratidia,) subject of the least pleas- 
ing of Horace's writings, 91 ; her poisons and 
cruelty, 94, 95, too, 131; deaf to Horace's 
prayer, 101; last mention of, 158 

Cantabrians, untaught to bear Roman yoke, 
46 ; warlike, 49 ; a chain at last imposed on, 
61 ; unconquerable ere now, 83 ; Agrippa's 
victory over, 177 

Capitol, Queen plotting against, 43 ; let it stand 
in splendour, 57 ; applause invites to, 69; pon- 
tiff ascends, 73 ; triumphal procession to, 75 

Care, consuming, 49; marring, 52; black, 55; 
envious, 175 ; flitting around the fretted 
vault, 51 ; following money as it grows, 65 ; 
but chased away by wine, 31 ; you strive to 
baffle, 155 ; to charm it to seek to rest, 166 

Carthage, when its troops were prevailing, 33 ; 
blood of its citizens, 49; mariner of, 50; its 
shrines, 59; mighty, 59; messengers no more 
sent to, 77; rival of Rome, 96; burning of 
impious, 80 

Casaubon, wrote on Satire, 102 

Cato, (Censor,) unshorn, 51; antique, 67, 198; 
writings of, 207 

Cato, (of Utica,) three times mentioned by 
Horace, 4 ; glorious death, 33 ; dauntless 
soul, 44: roughness and virtue, 186 

Catullus. Niebuhr counts greatest Roman poet, 
7 ; little read compared with Horace, 8 ; his 
extravagance of expression, 9 ; Horace owes 
little to, 22; Horace only mentions him once, 
127, 161; his genius, skill, carelessness, 161 

Ceres, mystery of, 56; presented with garland, 
87; nourishes fields, 77; honoured on condi- 
tions, 135; sacred basket of, 156 

Childhood, Horace's, 1; miracle in Horace's, 
58 ; characteristics of, 210 



Chorus, duties of in a play, 210; sung the 
Secular Hymn, 86, 87 

Chrysippus, father, 113; his porch and school, 
137; his classification of the superstitions, 142; 
how inferior to Homer, 166 

Cicero, his treatise on friendship, 14; his work 
' on Orators,' 159 

Cities, famous, Rhodes, Mytilene, Ephesus, 
Corinth, Thebes, Lacedaemon, Larissa, 30. 

Civil wars, Horace knew the evils of, 11 ; causes 
of, 23; lament for, 24, 42; carnage of, 44; 
threatened ruin of Rome by, 99 

Cleopatra, her frantic designs, downfall, and 
brave death, 43 ; Roman soldier sold into 
slavery to, 96 

Client, maids of gentle birth, 53; borders of, 
53 ; larger throng of, 55 ; tedious business of, 
59; keeping watch in the hall, 169; a morn- 
ing* T 73 5 l avv expounded to, 191 

Comedy, what Lucilius owes to the Greek, 103, 
114; Roman founded on new Greek, Satire 
on old, 103; hardly poetry, 115; difficulties 
and discouragements of, 193 ; Satyric drama 
not the same as, 211; on Roman subjects, 
213 

Constancy, praise of, 33 

Contentment, the genuine happiness of, 40, 51; 
is genuine wealth, 65; Horace philosopher 
of, 72; very rare, 107; can be found at Ulu- 
brse, 177 ; Horace will secure it for himself, 
186 

Contrasts, between Horace's Odes on love and 
on friendship, 23 ; between different profes- 
sions, 27, 107; famous towns, and Italian 
scenery, 30; cold out of doors, and warmth 
in doors, 31 ; sorrow, and victories of Augus- 
tus, 48; present luxury, and ancient simplicity, 
51 ; Rome and the Sabine cottage, 72 ; former 
and present state of the Esquiline ; childhood, 
youth, manhood, old age, 210; taste of old 
Romans and Greeks, 191 ; old Romans and 
modern, 191 

Critic, Horace appears as, 127, 161: Horace, 
Boileau, Pope, as, 203 ; a good one rare, 205 ; 
like a whetstone, 213 

Curius, with the unkempt locks, 33; manly, 
164 

Cyprus, goddess who rules o'er, 28 ; Venus 
has forsaken, 36 ; beloved by Venus, 40 ; 
blissful, 70 

D. 

Dacians, the savage, 42; would fain disguise 
dread of the Marsian cohort, 54: have almost 
destroyed Rome, 60; is there any news 
about? 151 

Dacier, wrote on Satire, 102 

Dama, son of some slave, 120; am I to give 
the wall to? 147; my old comrade, 149 

Damasippus, a bankrupt, virtuoso, a would-be 
felo-de-se, then converted, 136; very mad, 
but not so mad as Horace, 144 

Dante, speaks of Satirist Horace, 21 

Davus, cheats old Chremes, 128 ; Davus of the 
play, 149; not too good to live, r$aj knave 
and loiterer, 155; speaker in the play, n 1 

Day, how Horace passed one at Rome, 1 
how he lost one, 151 



2 68 



INDEX. 



Death, fear of, 160, 200 ; Maecenas' fear of, 16; 
pale, 29 ; black, 39 ; cold, 47 ; unconquerable, 
50 ; swift, 52 ; impartial, 29 ; free, 83 ; in 
nobler mood, 43; laurel whose price is, 64; 
overtakes him who flees, 56 ; sweet for father- 
land, 56; one too slight for maidens' fault, 
70; snares of, 68; final boundary-line, 182; 
scythe of, 199; we must pay the debt of, 207. 

December, 8th of, Horace's birthday, 20; date 
of Bentley's edition, 6; freedom of, 152 

Degeneracy, universal, 24 ; Odes on, 60, 68 

Delphin editor of Juvenal, wrote on Satire, 
102 

Democritus, his active mind absent from the 
body, 177; would have had his laugh in Ro- 
man theatres, 193; his creed about genius 
and art, 213 

Dialogues, between sailor and Archytas, 39; 
Horace and Lydia, 62 ; Horace and Trebatius, 
130; Horace and Damasippus, 135 ;_ Horace 
and Catius, 144; Ulysses and Teiresias, 146 ; 
Horace and Davus, 152 ; Horace and Funda- 
nius, 155 

Diana, two Odes to, 36, 67 ; her crowded festi- 
val, 49; mistress of the woods, 87 ; a chorister 
of, 88 ; queen of Silence, 95 ; not lightly to be 
provoked, 100 ; altar of, 206 ; wrath of, 217 

Diffuseness, no usual fault of Horace's poetry, 
90; instances of, 93, 100, 123, 131 ; Catullus', 
161 

Dinner-party, description of, 155 

Doctors, Craterus, 140, Musa Antonius, 179 

Douglas, Dr, collected 400 editions of Horace, 6 

Drusus, Ode on the victory of, 76; fiercely 
struck to earth the Genauni, 83 

Dryden, his discourse on Satire, 105 ; his trans- 
lation of Juvenal, 160, 161; forgot to blot, 
162 

Dull towns, Lebedus, Gabii, Fidenae, 176; 
Ulubrse, 177 

E. 

Earlier poets of Rome, Horace's judgment on, 
161, 189; a list of, with remarks on, 190; 
anything but faultless, 191 

Editions of Horace, 400 of, 6 ; list of by Mit- 
scherlich, 6; Bentley's, 6; Yonge's, 6; those 
of Horace much more numerous than those of 
Juvenal, 106 

Ennius, his Satires a jumble, 102 ; quotation 
from, 115 ; his verses wanting in dignity, 
128 ; merry with wine, 186 ; wise and vigorous, 
190 ; enriched his mother tongue, 207 ; blamed 
by the Iambic, 212 

Epic poetry of Varius, 30, 128 ; Homer's, 208 ; 
Horace lacks ability for, 130 

Epicurean philosopher, Horace's, 12, 23, 41, 
119, 169; gentlemanlike, 13; its doctrines 
on first state of man, and on law, 113; dis- 
belief in miracles, 119 

Epistles, Introduction to, 159; philosophy of, 
160 ; Horace as a critic in, 161 ; their rare 
excellence and influence, 162 

Epodes, Introduction to, 89; metre and sub- 
jects of, 90 ; defects and merits, 91 

Esquiline, wolves and birds of, 95, 124; high- 
priest of witchcraft on, 101 ; once hideous, 
now healthy, 124 



Europa, story of, 70 

Examples, against ambitious hopes, 81 ; prac- 
tical education by means of, 116; of Albutius 
and Nsevius, 134; nothing proved by some, 
138; dawn of life, furnished with illustrious, 
192 

F. 

Fables, of frog, 143; of mice, 152; of stag and 
horse, 176; of little fox, 172 

Fascination of Horace's character, compli- 
ment to, 22 

Fate, made equal to gods, 23, 75 

Faunus, Ode to on 5th of December, 66% fleet, 
35 ; sacrificed to in shady grove, 29 ; guard 
of men beloved by Mercury, 52 ; ranks of, 
186; fetched from the woods, 212 

Field of Mars, a sunny plain, 31, 210; again 
and again sought, 31; candidate descends 
into, 55; Horace shuns, 122; Horace played 
at ball with Maecenas in, 151 ; one fond of a 
game in^ 173; places compared with, 177; 
youth rejoicing in grass of, 210 

Fierce language, alien from Horace, 91 ; in- 
stances of, 94, 95, 101 

Fish, fondness of Romans for, T33, 144, 145 

Flaccus, if aught of manhood in, 99; when 
words of find Augustus attentive, 130 

Flattery, base, 121 ; Maecenas' house free from, 
126; gross by legacy- hunter, 148, 149; poets 
should avoid, 216; Quintilius free from, 216 

Flute, Berecynthian, 66; Lydian, 84; plain- 
tive, 61 ; shrill, 32 ; tuneful, 35 ; lyre in 
unison with, 96 ; rival of the trumpet, 211 

Folly, assails heaven itself, 29; brief and 
sweet, 82 ; attacked by Horace, 104, 160 

Fortune, her gifts gain, 31 ; the spoiler, 41 ; 
ode to, 41 ; game of, 44 ; her caprice, 72 ; of 
the line of the house of Barca, 77; stirs new 
civil turmoils, 135; no god more cruel, 157; 
keeps her gracious looks, 176 

Fortune-hunting, a necessary trade, 146; its 
arts, 147; its disappointments, 148; its re- 
wards, 149 

Fountains, Bandusia one, ode to, 64; clearer 
than glass, ennobled, 64 ; Pimplea joys in 
unsullied, 38 ; Horace a friend to, 58 ; splash 
with jets of water, 93 ; flowing with wine, 
53 ; fit to give a name to a stream, 180 

Friends of Horace, Virgil, Varius, Maecenas, 
Plotius, Pollio, Bibulus, Servius, Valgius, 
Octavius, Fuscus, Messala, Furnius, 129; 
Grosphus, 51; Quintilius, 37; Iccius, 39; 
Tibullus, 41 ; Saliustius, 44 ; Dellius, 45 ; 
Septimius, 46 ; Postumus, 50 ; Telephus, 66 ; 
Paullus, lulus, 74 ; Torquatus, Censorinus, 
79; Lollius, 80; Florus, 167; Celsus, 174; 
Vala, 179; Quinctus, 180; Scaava, 182; Piso, 
father and sons, 206 

Friendship, Horace poet of, 14; Odes, poems 

of, 23, 28, 37, 47, 46, 52 
Furius, murderer of Memnon, 128 ; spitter of 
hoary snow, 147 

G. 

Gardens, of Maecenas, newly made, 124 ; Julius 
Caesar's across the Tiber, 125 



INDEX. 



269 



Gastronomy, precepts of, 144, 145, 146 

Genius (god), soothed with wine, sacrifice of 
pig, flowers, 66, 192, 211 ; name used in en- 
treaties, 174 ; companion of our existence, 
200 

Genius, the Greeks had it, 214; needs art, as 
art needs genius to make a poet, 216 

Gerlach, on Satires of Lucilius, 102 

Germany, savage, 78; wild with its blue-eyed 
warriors, 99 

Goethe, Apennines had charms for, 1 ; quoted 
by Niebuhr, 10 

Goodall, Provost, his jokes from Horace, 8 

Gospel, striking resemblance of text in to 
passage in Horace, 24 

Graces, the companions of Spring, 31, 79; 
the emblem of courtesy, 236 

Grandiloquent style, blamed by Horace, 162 ; 
instances of, 128, 147 

Great men of republic, n ; Romulus, Numa, 
Tarquin, Cato, Regulus, Scauri, Paullus, 
Fabricius, Curius, Camillus, Marcellus, Au- 
gustus, 33 

Greece, Horace no mere translater of poetry 
of, 3, 128; Horace's obligations to lyric 
poetry of, 21 ; delicate spirit of the Muse of, 
52; knowledge of its literature gave supe- 
riority to its later writers, 161, 192 ; heroes 
of, 109 ; conquered her rude captor, 192 ; 
raode^ of writers of to be studied diligently 
by authors, 212 ; Roman poets ventured 
beyond the track of writers of, 213 ; writers 
of, men of genius, 214 

H. 

Hannibal, Rome's struggle with, 8 ; accursed, 
49 ; his words, 77 ; hurried flight, 79 ; name 
of, abhorred by parents, 99 

Hector, loss of, 46; aid of his might, 57; 
dauntless, 80 ; slayer of heroes, 100 ; deadly 
anger with Achilles, 123 

Helen, her brethren, those shining stars, 28; 
borne away by the shepherd, 34 ; Laconian, 
80 ; defamed, 101 ; the times before her age, 
113. 

Helicon, its shadov/y spaces, 32 ; verdant, 194 ; 
poets in their senses excluded from, 213 

Hercules, Augustus compared to, 64 ; guest at 
the banquet of Jove, 80 ; incensed at defeat, 
77 ; the doer, 94 ; smeared v/ith poisoned 
blood, 101 ; proved to be a friend, 150 ; arms 
fastened to his temple, 163 

Heroes, Merion, Tydides, 30; Nestor, Ajax, 
34; Pollux, Hercules, Romulus, 56; chosen 
by Clio ' to be recorded on harp, 32 ; of 
the early world, 134; contrast between one 
and a god, 29 ; conspicuous in gold and purple, 
211 

Hexameter, of Horace, not Epic, yet mellow 
and even in flow, 159 

Homer, Mseonian, 80; great, 128; a better 
teacher than philosophers, 166 ; praises wine, 
186; a second, 190; his metre, 205 ; no better 
guide than, 209; sometimes nods, 214; roused 
manly hearts, 215 

Hooker, reading Horace, 9 

Hope, Horace's thoughts on death not relieved 



by, 160 ; fragment of a distant, 29 ; length 
of, 32; brought back to troubled minds, 67; 
ambitious, 81 ; fresh, 82; visionary, 169; cne 
hanging on, 186 
Horace, scenery of his birth-place, 1, 58; his 
good father, 2, 116, 121; his University life, 
3, 196; military career, 4, 123, 196; days 
of poverty, 5, 89, 196; his many blessings, 
6; popularity of his writings, 7; causes of 
it, 8; unlike any other writer, 9; charges 
against him, 10; his eulogies of Augustus, 
11; his philospphy, 12, 13; his friends, 15, 

16, 23, 129; his relations with Maecenas, 16, 

17, 121, 126; life of by Suetonius, 18, 19, 20; 
fascination of his character, 22 ; his religion, 
23 ; morality, 24; as a censor, 24; as a 
patriot, 25 ; union of sadness and mirth in, 
25 ; lyric bard, 27, 76 ; but not epic, 30 ; the 
fire hot within him, 35 ; his simple tastes, 
43, 122 ; conscious of his immortality, 54, 
72; a bachelor, 6r; his prayers for Galatea, 
71; a tiny_ minstrel, 75; poet laureate, 86; 
hates garlic, 93 ; dislikes airs in low-born, 
94; can and will defend himself, 96, 131; 
love's hand is on him, 97; a careful writer, 
104; when most charming, 105; likes a 
harmless jest, 107, 116, 157; enthusiastic for 
friendship, 111; professes himself no poet, 
115; desires to improve in character, 117; 
his journey, 117; sore-eyed, 118; how he 
spent his day, 122 ; beset by bore, 125 ; his 
imaginary dialogue with Trebatius, 130 ; 
indolent, 135, 196; foibles, airs, poetry, hot 
temper, many loves, 143 ; contentment, 149, 
200; his prayer, 150; little troubles, 6, 150; 
love for country, 151, 175, 179; is inconsis- 
tent, 153 ; fond of a good dinner, 155 ; 
moderate in his tone, 160, 170; his weak 
health and pensiveness, 160 ; dislike of florid 
style, 162 ; familiar friend of many genera- 
tions, 162 ; philosophy suits his old age, 163 ; 
reads Homer, 166 ; friend of Tibullus, 168 ; 
must be free, 172; ashamed of his own dis- 
content, 10, 174; writes letters of introduc- 
tion, 159, 174, 177; in favour of cold water 
cure, 179; gives directions how to live with 
the great, 182, 183, 184, 185; has many 
imitators, 186; dislikes publicity, 186; when 
born, short, quick-tempered, soon grey, fond 
of sunshine, 188; honours a real poet, 194; 
dislikes writing letters, 196; is getting old, 
196; why he wrote Art of Poetry, 201 : 
no metaphysician, 202 ; a teacher of good 
nature, 203 ; tribute of gratitude to Quintilius, 
216 

Humorous description of contest of words, 
118, 123. 

I. 

Iambics, swift, 89 : their rush, 35 ; Epodes 
chiefly written in, 90; Parian, 187; Arehi- 
lochus' own metre, 208 ; contrasted with 
Spondee, 212 

Ides, kept, 81; money got in on, 93; teacher's 
fee paid on, 121 

Iliad, teaches the folly of sin, 160 ; gives 
subjects good to make plays, 209 



270 



INDEX. 



Immortality, noblest ode of, 25, 72 ; the Muses' 
gift, 80 

Inconsistency, Tigellius', no; of mankind, 
107, 152; Horace's own, 153, 174, 180; 
external noticed, 165 ; that of practice pass- 
ed over, 165 

India, close to confine of the East, 33; opulent, 
68; ivory of, 40; reveres Augustus, 83 ; begs 
replies of Romans, 88 ; enriched by the sea, 
170 

Integrity, in polities, 56 ; merit of, 56 ; apparent, 
not real, 181 

Io-Triuinphe, 75 

Irony, Horace's unlike that of Socrates, 8, 14; 
instances of, 4, 45, 101, 144, 165, 18 t, 197 

Isles, Fortunate, diffuse description of, 100 



Janus, thrice closed by Augustus, it, 84: for- 
tune wrecked at middle, j 36 ; father of dawn, 
150 ; his highest and lowest arcade, 164 ; 
father, 181 ; Horace's book looks wistfully 
towards, 187 

Jealousy, Horace may have felt it of Catullus, 
161 ; that of a lover, 33 

Jews, make proselytes, 117; Jew Apella may 
believe, 119; circumcised, 126 

Jokes, harmless, 115; Horace often ends with 
one, 202, 217; you may tell the truth, while 
making one, 107; often more powerful than 
severity, 127 

Julius Caesar, only twice mentioned by Horace ; 
avenger of, 28; his gardens, 125 

Juno, Argos and Mycenae sacred to, 30 ; friend 
of Africa, 44 ; her speech in heaven, 56 ; 
matron, 58 ; sacred basket of, no 

Jupiter, only ruler of Augustus,. 33, 59; sweeps 
down with dreadful crash, 35 ; secret counsels 
of, 39 ; wields the thunderbolt, 56 ; thundered 
in the undimmed firmament, 41; shakes the 
universe with his nod, 55 ; standing safe, 59 ; 
standards restored to, 84; dread struck into 
the mind of, 58 ; downward drawn, 98 ; wise 
man less than, 165 ; what to pray to him for, 
186 ; ear of our Jove, 187 ; Augustus a visible, 

59 
Juvenal, implies that Horace was a standard 
author, 6; shows bad taste at times, 9 ; Del- 
phin editor of, 102; a declaimer, 104; very 
original, 100 ; his energy and vehemence, 
160; compared with Horace by Dry den, 105 

K. 

Kalends of March, feast of matrons, 61 ; money 

put out again on, 93; black, 112 
Keate, Dr, taught the works of Horace at 

Eton, 7 
Keightley, says Horace is the most elliptic of 

writers, 104; calls Horace the inventor of 

the Poetic Epistle, 106 ; calls the Art of Poetry 

the art of criticism, 203 
King, a sham one, 113; a real one, 164 

L. 

Lessing, champion of Horace, 9 

Liber, stirs the soul, 34 ; temperate, 35 ; his 



resistless thyrsus, 53; decked with fresh vine- 
leaves, 80; white he-goat vowed to, 61 ; 
playful, 84 

Life, we ought to enjoy wisely the pleasures of, 
25, 32, 45, 49 5 simple and hardy of old 
Romans, 60; of girls, when joyless, 63; 
frivolous, 64: simplest, best, 68 

Lighter style of Horace better than his grander, 
9, 24 

Livius Andronicus, Horace learnt, 2 ; his poems 
far from perfect, 191 

Livy, Augustus called him the Pompeian his- 
torian, 11 

Louis XIV, his life not unlike that of Augustus, 
12 ; Boileau to him, what Horace to Augustus, 
203 

Love, Horace not touched deeply by, 14, 23 ; 
few of the Odes poems of, 22 ; doting, 31 ; 
for a slave, 45; Horace feels himself again 
possessed by, 74 ; remedies of are uncertain, 
97 ; is childish, inconsistent, superstitious, 
cause of crime, 142 

Lower world, charm of Lyric song in, 50, 63 ; 
forms in, 50, 51, 54; darkness of, 79; hounds 
of, 124 

Lucan, read in middle ages, 6 ; his pedantry, 9 

Lucania, pastures of, 92; snows of, 141; boar 
caught in, 141, 156 

Lucilius, Gerlach's edition of, 102; in what 
sense inventor of Satire, 102, 128, 132: judg- 
ment of Cicero, Horace, Quintilian, on, 103 ; 
like, and unlike Horace, 104 ; merits and 
defects of, 114; improved by one Cato, 127 ; 
like a muddy stream, 114, 128; all his life 
open to view, 131 ; Horace professes to be far 
below, 132 ; lived in bad times for composition, 
128 m 

Lucretius, Virgil owes much to, 21 ; not men- 
tioned by Horace, 161 ; his excellence, 161 

Lucrine lake, ponds spreading more widely 
than, 51; fish of, 93, 145 ; works at, 207 

Lucullus, his wealth and liberality, 171 ; soldier 
in the army of, 196 

Luxury, prevalent among the rich, 51: did not 
always prevail, 133 ; brings ill-health, dis- 
grace, ruin, 134 

Lyre, Lesbian, 27 ; prompts song of Latium, 
40; discharged from service, 68; unwarlike, 
34 ; awakes the muse, 48 ; an old age which 
lacks not, 40 ; a voice crystal clear with, 37 ; 
playful, 57; Teian, 35 

Lytton, Lord, his introduction to the Odes, 8 

M. 

Maecenas, 7 Odes, 4 Epodes, 2 Satires, 3 Epis- 
tles addressed to, 27, 49, 52, 54, 61, 65, 71, 
92, 93, 96, 98, 107, 120, 163, 171, 186; Horace 
introduced to, 5, 121 ; friend rather than 
patron of Horace, 16, 17; his dying remem- 
brance of Horace, 18; Horace buried near, 
20 ; prose annals of, 49 ; Horace's professed 
allegiance to, 52 ; a beloved friend, 54 ; glory 
of the knights, 65; scion of Etruscan kings, 
27, 71, 120; his birthday, 81; his faith to 
Augustus, 92; full of jokes, 94; blest, 96; 
true friend, 98 ; Horace often intruded on, 
112 ; his newly-made gardens, 124; his house 
free from intrigue, 126; Horace mimicked 



INDEX, 



271 



him, 143; Horace's intimacy with, 150; at a 
dinner-party, 156; subject of earliest and 
latest lay, 163 ; Horace's independence with, 
17, 171 ; learned, 61, 186 
Malignity, sample of real, 116; Horace's horror 

of, 15, 116 
March, first of, anniversary of Horace's escape 

from death, 61 
Mars, clad in corslet of adamant, 30; grisly, 
39 ; wolves of, 35 ; steeds of, 56 ; Juno resigns 
deep wrath to, 57 
Martial, his conditions of happy life, 6; joins 

Horace with Virgil, 6 
Mediocrity, good in station, 55 ; intolerable in 

poetry, 215 
Medley, whence came the name Satire, 102 ; 
of Greek and Latin words in Lucilius, 127 ; 
would not be endured in pleaders, 128 
Melpomene, Ode to, 75; Pierian lady, 76; 

prompts mournful strains, 37 
Menander, packed up with Plato, 136 ; Afranius' 

gown would have suited, 190 
Mercury, two Odes addressed to, 32, 62 ; his 
awful wand, and gloomy flock, 38 ; fleet, 47 ; 
men beloved by, 52 ; gain offered by, 137 ; 
very god of gain, 136 
Minerva (Pallas), has honours next to Jove, 32 ; 
her helmet, aegis, and car, 34, 58, 97 ; offering 
to, 78 ; city of, 30 
Miracle, saved Horace in his childhood, 58 ; 
Jew may believe in, Horace will not, 119; 
Horace professes to be converted by one, 41 
Moderation, main principle of Horace's philo- 
sophy, 157; a reproduction of Aristotle's 
maxim, 160, 184; fixed limits of, 109; makes 
and keeps a man happy, 170; wisdom of, 45 ; 
gives the perfect life in the golden mean, 48 
Money, wise use of, 44; omnipotence of, 65; 
changes not birth, 94; miser knows not use 
of, 108; hoarding of utterly unreasonable, 
138; miseries of, 126; cannot do everything, 
145; popular ideas all tend to making of, 165 
Morality, Odes which sing of, 22; lofty and 
earnest in the Odes, 24 ; Horace's rises almost 
to enthusiasm, 160, 163, 164, 165; Homer 
teacher of, 166; growth in, 200. 
Muse, of lyre, 30 ; of tragedy, 44 ; invoked, 
118, 174, 209; Horace friend of, 38; priest 
of, 55 ; utterances of, 189; work engraven by 
the nine, 197 : delicate spirit of the Grecian, 
52; honour of the Daunian, 78; whose joy 
is in the country, 128 
Mysteries of Udolpho, 1 ; of philosophy, 55 ; 

of Ceres, 56 
Mythology, unfitness of Horace's lyric poetry 
for, 49 

N. 

Naevius, constantly thumbed. 190 

Napoleon, compared by Mr Pitt to the Hanni- 
bal of Horace, 8 

Nasidienus, his wealth, vanity, sorrows, 155, 
156, 137 

Nature, changes in, 48 ; successions in, 79 ; her 
privilege, 161; suffers pain, 109; relations 
given by, 109; faults implanted by, 111; 
works wonders, 119; strong law of, 131; 



puts no great separation between right and 
wrong, 113 ; if pitched out, will speed baJ.-, 
175; bounds of, 108, 140; laws of, deduced 
from Horace by Galiani, 7 

Necessity, forerunner of Fortune, 42 ; her im- 
partial law, 55; her spikes of adamant, 68 

Neptune, wintry, 101; festal day of, 71; guar- 
dian of Tarentum, 39 ; realms of, 96 ; we 
will sing in turn of, 71 ; received into the 
land, 207 

Niebuhr, unjust to Horace, 8, 9; does not 
count him so great a flatterer as Virgil, 90; 
strange notion of on Horace's poems, 12 

Nomentanus, the spendthrift, 124, 130; follow 
the steps of, 140; considerate young man, 
141 

Nymphs, Graces linked with, 29; tripping 
companies of, 27; guileless, 47; flying, 66; 
pupils of Bacchus, 53 ; garland due to, 70 



Ocean, estranging, 29; sun sinking down be- 
neath, 78 ; monster-haunted, 83 ; that wanders 
round the world, 100 

Odes, Introduction to, 21 ; classes of, 22 ; show 
Horace changeable, and also true, 23; mo- 
rality and patriotism in, 24; mixture of 
gaiety and pensiveness in, 25 ; various quali- 
ties of Horace shown in, 26 

Old age, one not dishonoured, 40; Horace's 
resting place in, 46; quiet, 88; calm, 131; 
sluggish, 134; should be cleared off the 
clouded brow, 98 ; drawing near, 200 ; cha- 
racteristics of, 210 

Orbilius, teacher and grammarian, 2 ; fond of 
flogging, 191 

Originality, how far true of Odes, Satires, 
Epistles, 21, 22 

Ovid, mention of Horace by, 6 ; his conceits, 9 

P. 

Pacuvius, learned old writer, 190 

Parasites, Horace might have been one, 4: 
one at the table of Maecenas, 19 ; Vibidius 
and Balatro, two, 156 ; their behaviour, 156, 
160 ; Msenius, a witty one, who dined every- 
where, 180 

Parthians, (Medes, Persians,) formidable, ca- 
reering, 28; whose courage lies in retreating 
steeds, 36; heard the crash of falling Italy, 
44; adorned with quiver, 51; Ode written 
before the surrender of the standards by, 
59; distracted by woeful warfare, 61 ; 
to be dreaded, while Augustus reigns, 
88 ; standards taken down from their portals, 
84, 185; as they would pray, 96; WOUn 
in battle, 130; dread Augustus and Rome, 
148, 195 

Patriotism, Odes on, 22; a patriot is not a:: 
to die for his country, 81 ; sweet and seemly 
to die for one's country, 56; one who 
learnt what our country ex] 
want of patriotism is selfish:, issing 

life, beloved by our country, 

Patrons, how to live wi: 

them not the first thing, nor the last, 1 



272 



INDEX. 



how to hit proper mean in our dealings with, 
184 

Persius, implies that Horace was a standard 
author, 6 ; obscure, 9 ; his metaphors strained, 
105 ; mentions bombastic writers, 162 ; pas- 
sage in Byron like, 205 

Personification, of Virtue, 56, 69, 84, 88, 163, 
170; Care, 52, 155; Death, 29, 72; Fear, 
55 ; Conscience, 55 ; Envy, 55 ; Necessity, 
42; Honour, 37, 42, 88; Reverence, 37; 
Justice, 37; Truth, 37; Hope, 42; Self- 
love, 36; Boast, 36; Money, 170; Persua- 
sion, 170; Mirth, 28; Iambic, 212; Freedom, 
36; Silence, 80; Faith, 88; Peace, 88; Mo- 
desty, 88; Plenty, 88; Prosperity, 77; Na- 
ture, 39 ; Fortune, 44 

Petrarch, his sad remembrance, 23 

Philippi, flight at, 4, 47, 58, 196 

Pindar, not much imitated by Horace, 21 ; 
superior to Horace in power, 25; cannot be 
rivalled, 74; his poems, and contrast with 
Horace, 75; draughts from the spring of, 168 

Plautus, bustles on in his plays, 190; liberty 
granted to, 207 ; rhythm and wit praised too 
readily, 212 

Pluto, his narrow mansion, 29; whom tears 
may not move, 50 

Poets, the most popular of, 26 ; lyric, 27 ; 
monument, and immortality of, 72 ; Melpo- 
mene looks graciously on, 75; gifts they can 
give, 79; great band of, 117; bad, and good, 
as Lucilius, Calvus, Catullus, Pitholeon, Al- 
pinus, Fundanius, Pollio, Virgil, Varius, Ho- 
race, Varro, Homer, Accius, Ennius, 127, 
128; old Roman, as Ennius, Nsevius, Pacu- 
vius, Accius, Afranius, Plautus, Caecilius, 
Terence, Livius, 190; nation of would-be, 
191; mad, but harmless, 192; easily dis- 
couraged, 193 ; vanity of, 194 ; flatter one 
another, 197; clients of Bacchus, 197, self- 
satisfied, and bad, 198; severe on themselves, 
and real, 198; compared with .painters, 215; 
if rich, will be taken in, 216 

Pollio, maintained honest independence, 15 ; 
all his works lost, 16 ; Ode to, as historian, 
tragedian, advocate, senator, conqueror, 44 ; 
his trimeter iambics, 128; one of Horace's 
scholarlike friends, 129 

Porphyrio, most valuable of the ancient com- 
mentators on Horace, 18 

Prayer, Phidyle's simple, 23, 68; bard's to en- 
shrined Apollo, 40; of folly, 150; of the 
hypocrite, 181 ; Horace's own, 150, 186 

Proserpine, ruthless, 39 ; realms of dusky, 50 ; 
Horace ironically beseeches by, 100 ; imperi- 
ous, 149 

Pythagoras, precepts which throw into shade 
those of, 144; beans the relations of, 151; 
seer born to many a life, 99 ; Archytas be- 
longed to school of, 39 ; Ennius' dreams after 
the fashion of, 190 



Q. 

Quintilian, speaks of the title, "Art of Poetry," 

201 
Quintilius, friend of Horace and Virgil, 15; 



lamentation for the death of, 23, 37; his 
honest criticism, 216 
Quirinus, people of, 28 ; escaped Acheron, 56 ; 
gate of, 84 ; bones of, 99 ; appeared in vision, 
3, 128; mount of, 197 

R. 

Regulus, 33 ; story of, 59 

Religion, Odes which sing of, 22; Horace's 
ideas of, 23, 24, 32, 60, 65, 68 

Rigault, his remarks on Horace at Athens, 3; 
on admirers of Horace, 7 

Rome, prayer for, 87; smoke, splendour "and 
din of, 72 ; falls by her own act, 99 ;' Horace 
educated at, 2, 121, 196; owes a debt to the 
Neros, 76; Horace hurried away to, 150, 
178; Horace pines for the country at, 153; 
yet loves when at Tibur, 174 ; the quiet of 
Athens contrasted with the noise of, 197 

Romulus, next to ancient heroes, 33; mixed 
with them, 189; precepts of, 51; deserts of, 8 

Ruperti, has written on Roman Satires, 102 

Rural life, full description of, 93 ; a longing tor, 

S. 

Sabbath, 30th, 126 

Sabine farm, inspired Horace's Odes, 5; Ho- 
race blest enough in, 53 ; better than wealth, 
55 ; its spring, 64, 65 ; its wood, 65 ; descrip- 
tion of, 180 

Sacrifice, to Venus, 36; description of on 
Maecenas' birthday, 81 ; to Ceres at a feast, 
135 ; to Earth, Silvanus, Genius, 192; having 
just assisted at, 211; an innocent heart the 
most acceptable, 68 

Sapphics, sprightly, 22; more majestic in 
Secular Hymn, 22, 86 

Sappho, translated by Catullus, 22 ; her 
JEolian strings, 50; masculine, 187 

Satires, origin of, 102 ; how far Roman are 
original, 103 ; character of those of Horace, 
104; Horace hardly a writer of in the modern 
sense, 105 ; Horace's compared with those 
of Juvenal, 106; compared with Epistles, 
106, 159; too keen, and so unpopular, 114, 
130; Horace's hobby, 131; prosaic Muse, 

159. 

Satyric drama, rules of, 211 

Satyrs, Nymphs blended with, 27 ; goat-footed 
53 : ranks of, 186 ; one who dances like, 198 ; 
mocking, wild, witty, wanton, 211 

Scaliger, praises Secular Hymn, 86; unamia- 
ble critic, 201 

Scott, Walter, scene from in ' Kenil worth,' 5; 
had a healthy mind, 10 

Scythians, roving, 42, 83 ; Scythian parted from 
us, 49; with bow unstrung, 61 ; a simple life 
like that of is healthiest and best, 68 ; icy, 
78 ; lately haughty, 88 

Secular Hymn, introduction to, 85 ; its charac- 
ter, 86; prayer in to Apollo, Diana, Sun, 
Ilithyia, Fates, Earth, Faith, Peace, Honour, 
Modesty, Virtue, Plenty, Jove, 87, 88 

Shakspeare, that barbarian, 162 ; Voltaire bad 
judge of, 204 

Silenus, guardian of a divine pupil, 212 



INDEX. 



273 



Silvanus, shaggy, 72; guardian of bounds, 93; 
propitiated with milk, 192 

Simonides, his studies of the Cean dirge, 44 ; 
his songs of Ceos, 80 

Slaves, love for one, 45 ; plunder, and run 
away, 109; bantered the boatmen, 117; 
frightened, 119; some one, a Syrus, a 
Dionysius, a Dama, 120; Horace whispered 
anything in the ear of his, 125 ; are to be 
bribed, 126; old Albutius, savage to, 134; 
one a deal wiser than his master, 142 ; saucy 
household, 151; Horace's Davus, his liberty, 
152 ; the condition of the will decides who is 
the real, 154; all, but the wise, are, 154; 
Horace had eight on his Sabine farm, 155 ; 
one of all work, 178 ; shrewd city-slave, 179 ; 
the miser is one, 182 ; captive in war may be 
a useful one, 182 

Spring, its return, 29; lingering at Tarentum, 
47 ; countenance like, 77 : Summer treads on 
the steps of, 79 ; breezes companions of, 
82 

Stoics, pedants, 13 ; Cicero's account of, 13 ; a 
true and noble one, 56 ; dogma of that all sins 
are equal, 112 ; their model man is wise, jack 
of all trades, beautiful, king of kings, 113; a. 
new convert to the opinions of, 135 ; their 
dogma that all the world is mad, except 
themselves, 137; their dogma that the free- 
dom of the soul should be universal, 140 ; a 
joke on their doctrine of the perfect man, 
160 

Stories, as of Ummidius, 109 ; Ofellus, 135 ; 
Staberius, 138; Opimius, 139; Oppidius and 
his two sons, 140 ; Nomentanus, 141 ; Nasica, 
148; Philippus, 173; Maeniub, 180; Eutra- 
pelus, 184; Lucullus' soldier, 196; theArgive, 
198 

Streams, Anio (Teverone), torrent, 30 ; Auhdus 
(Ofanto), impetuous, 73 ; Danubius ^Danube), 
deep, 84; Digentia (Licenza), cool, 186; 
Galaesus (Galaso), dear to sheep, 46 ; Hebrus 
(Maritza), bound with snowy fetter, 167; 
Hydaspes (Attock), river of romance, 37; 
Ister (Danube), 83 ; Liris (Garigliano), voice- 
less, 40; Metaurus (Metaro), 76; Nilus 
(Nile), hiding its sources, 83 ; Pactolus, 
flowing with gold, 99; Padus (Po), 99; 
Rhenus (Rhine), 128; Rhodanus (Rhone), 
54 ; Scamander (Mendere), little, 98 ; Simois 
(Gumbrek), rolling, 98; Tanais (Don), far 
distant, 62 ; Tiberis (Tiber), yellow, 45 ; 
Tigris, rushing, 83 ; Xanthus (Echen ChaiJ, 
78 

Strenae, (etrennes,) Horace's, 79, 80 

Suetonius, his life of Horace considered genuine 
by Delphin editor, Niebuhr, Walckenaer, 
18 ; gives extracts from Augustus* letters, n, 
19 ; mentions date of Horace's birth and 
death, 20 ; undesigned coincidence respecting, 
17 

Summer, doomed to perish, 79 ; fiery, 35 ; spent 
in health, 144 

Superstition, Horace's dislike of, 13; Aristius 
Fuscus has none, 126; is a kind of madness, 
142 ; freedom from, 210 

Sweethearts of Horace, Asterie, 60; Barine, 
47 ; Chloe, 62 ; Cinara, 74 ; Damalis, 42 ; 



Glycera, 40; Inachia, 97 ; Lalage, 37: Ly ■-, 
63; Lydia, 62; Neobule, 63; Phid- 
Phryne, 98; Phyllis, 81; Pyrrha, .'. 
daris. 35 
Sympathy, delicate of Horace, 162; human 
countenance should express, 208 

T. 

Tacitus, on battle of Philippi, 4 ; his two views 
of Augustus, 11 

Tarentum, holy to Neptune, 39 ; Spartan town, 
46, 59; nook of the world, 47; luxurious, 
scallop its glory, 145 ; Horace can 
far as, 122; peaceful, 172; leafy woods of, 
180 

Terence, born at Carthage, 2; father in the 
play of, no; his Phormio alluded to, 134; a 
passage in his Eunuchus adapted, 142 ; 
excelled in skill, 190 

Tiber, yellow, 28, 31, 45 ; reverses his course, 
4o 

Tuscan stream, 61, 133; Caesar's gardens 
across, 125 ; let the sleepless swim thrice 
across, 130; a pike caught in, 133 ; naked in, 
143 ; during winter, 176 

Tiberius, fatherly spirit of Augustus towards, 
76 ; Ode on his victories in the Rhaetian Alps, 
83 ; Julius Florus on the staff of, 167 ; Celsus 
comrade and secretary of, 174; Horace's 
letter to, 174; chooses only what is honour- 
able, 175; Armenians yielded to him, T77; 
Florus, honest friend of good and great, 195 

Tibullus, does not mention Horace, 6 ; Messala 
patron of, 16 ; Ode to, on ruthless Glycera, 
41 ; Epistle to with praise of, 168 

Tibur, tangled shade of, 30; place for oh: 
46; slope of, 58; well-watered, 71; dewy, 
75 ; fruitful, 76 ; kindly soil of, 35 ; free from 
crowds, 172; absence made Horace fonder 
of, 174 

Tigellius, worthy child of Sardinia, no; trou- 
ble at his death, no; Horace's dislike of, 
115; Fannius the parasite of, 129 

Time, envious, 32 ; speeds fiercely _ on, 46 ; 
wasting, 60; issue of future, 72; improves 
poems and wine too, 190 

Triumph, of Augustus, 33 ; turned into funerals, 
41; Dalmatian, 44; shows captive foes to 
citizens, 183 

Triumvirate, literary, 15 

Tyrtaeus, roused manly hearts by song, 215 

U. 

Ulysses, shrewd, 30; enduring, 172; a not 
instance, 166; imaginary dialogue bet* 
him and Teiresias, 146 ; hero sung of by the 
Muse, 209 

University, Horace's life at, 3, 196 

Usury, blest is the man free from, 92 ; love of, 
ruling passion, 93 ; extortionate, 110; wealth 
grows by, 165 



Varius, Horace owed much to, 1, 5 ; all his 
works lost, 6 ; his name joined with that of 



HOR f 






274 



INDEX. 







r 3 



2_ 



Virgil, 15; vigorous epic poetry of, 15, 30, 128; 
friends' sorrow for departure of, 119; hardly 
suppresses his laughter, 157; praised Augus- 
tus, 195 ; liberty not to be denied to, 207 

Venus, birds of, 1 ; Erycina, 28 ; Lady of 
Cythera, 29; fair, 35; her power, 36; loves 
Cnidos, Cyprus, Paphos, 40 ; her will, 41 ; 
her nectar, 33 ; laughs, 47, 65 ; smiling, 67, 
71 ; her warfare, 69, 74; wine-bowl partner 
of, 66; hates pride, 62; sea-born, 70, 81; 
sweet, 78 ; offspring of, 84, 88 ; April month 
of, 81 ; adorns the .man of cash, 171; appoints 
lord of drinking, 47 

Vesta, her shrine, 28, 126, 198 ; virgins of, 28 ; 
undying, 59 

Vertumnus, mentioned as the name of a class 
of gods, 153 ; book looks wistfully towards, 

. l8 7 

Vida, his Poetics, character of, 203 

Villa, which yellow Tiber washes, 45 ; with 
colonnade catching gale of the north, 51 ; 
pine-tree overlooking, 67 ; bright marble, 92 ; 
Cocceius' well-stored, 118 ; one at Trivicum 
welcomes travellers, 119; talk about our 
neighbours', 151; money invested in hand- 
some, 180 

Virgil, Horace owed much to, 1, 5 ; chose 
epithets carefully, 1 ; his solemnity, 9 ; his 
voyage to Attica, 23, 28; an Ode to, 37; an 
Ode to, but perhaps not to the poet, 8i ; like 
Horace in his finished style, 15, 161 ; met 
Horace at Sinuessa, ti8; his grace, as poet 
of the country, 128 ; his fourth Eclogue, 85 
Horace like him in the Secular Hymn, 86 
praised Augustus, 195 ; his rhythm, 203 
Byron had little sympathy with, 204 ; liberty 
not to be denied to, 207 

Virtue, differs from the crowd, 45 ; knows not 
the disgrace of defeat, unfolds heaven, 56 ; is 
a mighty dowry, 68 ; the path of her steep 
ascent, 69 ; Horace wraps himself up in his 
own, 72 ; must be sought after cash, 164 ; a 
mean between vices, 160, 184 ; through love 
of, men shrink from sin, 160, 181; is it a 
lesson to be learnt, or nature's gift? 186; 
gold is meaner than, 164 ; are men made 
happy through riches or? 151 ; her guard and 
rigid sentinel,' 163 

Voltaire, on what subjects a good, on what 
a bad judge, 204 

Vulcan, his forges, 29; eager for the fray, 58; 
fire-god, 119 



1 2 



w. 



Walckenaer, his remarks on Horace at Athens, 
3 ; speaks of Virgil, Varius, and Horace as a 
literary triumvirate, 15; thinks Epodes pub- 
lished after the death of Horace, 89; writes 
on Satire, 102 ; says Horace's Satires are 
hardly satires, 105 ; speaks of eleven precepts 
in the Art of Poetry, 202 

Wieland, says Horace was not such a flatterer 
as Virgil, 90 

Wisdom, its foolishness, 23, 41 ; apply violence 
to the fortress of, 71 ; the gentle of Laelius, 
132; moderation is, 159; the beginning of to 
be free from folly, 164 ; what is the power of, 
166 ; you would advance, whither heavenly 
led you, 168 ; what was its office in days of 
yore, 215 

Wines, Alban, 81, 145, 156; Csecuban, 36, 43, 
51, 71, 96, 97, 156 ; Chian, 66, 97, 127, 138, 
156, 157; Coan, 145, 156; Falernian, 36, 38, 
45, 47, 49, 55, 94, 132, 138, 144, *45> *79, ?86 ; 
Formian, 36 ; Lesbian, 35, 97 ; Mareotic, 43 ; 
Massic, 27, 47, 67, 145 ; Sabine, 36 ; Veien- 
tan, 139 

Winter, keen, 29 ; description of, 31 ; unsightly, 
48; inclement, 55 ; Hebrus mate of, 38; life- 
less, 79; whirls snowy day, 156; its sheet of 
snows, 172; mild at Tarentum, 47 ; at Velia, 

x 79 . 

Words, like all other things, subject to chang< 
207 ; should be suitable to speaker, 208 



Xanthias, ironical Ode to on a slave, 25, 45 
Xanthus, Phcebus bathes his hair in its stream, 
78 

Y. 

Yonge, his Eton edition of Horace, 6, 7 
Youth, shortlived, 25 ; to be enjoyeu while 

lasts, 31; pleasant, 35; glow of, 64; nodi 
L fence from death, 39 ; characteristics of, 210 



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Z. 



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Zephyrs, fan Tempe, 55 ; the cold grows mild 

beneath, 79 ; bring a visitor, 172 
Zethus, graver brother, 185 
Zosimus, Greek hexameters preserved by, 85 



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CAMBRIDGE! PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PKES^.' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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